The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

September, 192 j Pictures and the Church 361 sermon. An hour before service time a downpour of rain started in and continued unabated. When he started to church he had no idea there would be a sufficient number of people present to hold a service. Imagine his amazement to find the church crowded! Did he preach less effectively because there were over one thousand people present than he would have preached to the handful usually comprising a stormy night congregation? But one may say that people will come only for the pictures. My best answer to that objection is another illustration from my own experience. For ten consecutive mid-summer Sunday nights I announced a sermon series, each sermon to be illustrated by one of the two-reel Lincoln cycles. The pictures had been seen well in advance, copious notes had been taken and the relationship between the . sermon material and the picture was in every case very obvious. The first night there was a large congregation. We went right through the regular order of service, and when giving out the closing hymn it was announced that the regular service would be concluded with the benediction and that after the postlude a two-reel Lincoln cycle would be shown to illustrate the sermon. Every opportunity was given to the congregation to leave during the postlude. As a matter of fact, one woman left the church after explaining to an usher that she had to catch a train. The same method was followed for all ten nights. The congregations held right up with increasing interest to the very end. Had people come only for the picture the}' could easily have waited until after the regular service, but everybody was on hand for the opening hymn. And what is even more to the point, those of the regular congregation who professed not to care for motion pictures invariably stayed to see them. The only fair explanation of the success of that experiment was that the services were interesting. The picture increased interest in the sermon and the picture was doubly interesting because f the sermon which had been preached. Ordinarily, a few faithful people would have gathered each of those hot Sunday nights, and they would have gone through the service with the ocst show of interest they could simulate. But as it was a large congregation had a fine, in eresting, helpful time on all those ten Sunday venings. If pictures are to be used to get congrega tions, they must be wisely chosen, studied and "built in" as integral parts of the service — otherwise the crowd will come just as an audience to see interesting pictures, but not as a congregation. Pictures must not be used merely to entertain, unless one wants simply a motion picture audience or "optience." We are after congregations and not mere audiences. When used wisely to enforce one's preaching, motion pictures vitalize a service, and people will come to a vital service, and what is more important, they will come again. When we get them to the church, then it is our business to give them the best message of life and hope, of righteousness and salvation that God can give to consecrated members of His Gospel. It surely is permissible to use pictures in a proper way to get people to church in order that we may get them into the church. A word of caution. Pictures are not to be used as sermon substitutes. One should always preach as long as necessary to deliver his message. Nor are pictures to be used as crutches by lazy men. To select just the right picture and prepare an appropriate sermon entails far more work than is involved in the conduct of an ordinary service. When properly used, the pictures can be used in preaching the Truth to a greatly increased congregation. Why should the church stand aloof or throw stones at this tremendous invention? Why not consecrate it to the glory of God and the extension of His Kingdom? The most important entrance into the soul of man is the "eye gate." The motion picture can be a genuine ministry to the soul through the "eye gate." — Chester C. Marshall, D.D. The Light of the World {Concluded from page 359) bit disappointing. The portrayal of Jesus — always a difficult and precarious venture — although lacking the force which might be also associated with the gentleness of the character, is done with a commendable reverence. On the whole, the production has the sweep of a fine historic pageant — a panorama of scenes all tending to the development of the central thought — the growth of the world toward real democracy and human equality, pointing to the dawn of a brighter day when all the world shall be at peace.