"THOU SHALL NOT KILL"

As an example of the depths to which some Christians have fallen in the observance of the above text, we quote the following from a Thanksgiving sermon by the Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage:

"How well I remember the old Thanksgiving dinner! Father at one end, mother at the other end, the children between, wondering if father will ever get done carving the turkey. O, that proud, strutting hero of the barn yard, upside down, his plumes gone and minus his gobble! Stuffed with that which he can never digest. The day before, at school, we had learned that Greece was south of Turkey, but on the table we found that turkey was bounded by grease. The brown surface waited for the knife to plunge astride the breastbone, and with knife sharpened on the jambs of the fireplace, lay bare the folds of white meat. Give to the disposed to be sentimental, the heart. Give to the one disposed to music, the drumstick. Give to the one disposed to theological discussions, the 'parson's nose.'"

Is it at all strange that cannibals love the juicy meat of missionaries, when those same missionaries devour "our little brothers" among the animals? How facetious this doctor of divinity grows in his description of the plight of the poor turkey, who has been robbed of his life, and, like a Christian martyr, cooked in oil, his flesh and bones served before the little savages of that happy household! If this were a description of what took place in some aboriginal civilization, we would read about it with horror. The fact that it is a picture of so-called Christian feasts that are taking place in great majority of Christian families in this civilized (?) land should fill us with horror. The people have forgotten the original menu given by God in Genesis 1. "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food." So long as men kill the animals and fill their bellies with the festering flesh, they will in turn be killed by the destructive cruelty and unlawful thought forces which they set into action. "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

O Thou Infinite Spirit, we thank Thee for the great land in which we live. We bless Thee for the great men whom Thou gavest us at every period of our nation's story; we thank Thee for such as were wise in council, those also who were valiant in fight, and by whose right arm our redemption was wrought out. We thank Thee for those noblest men and women who were filled with justice, with benevolence and with piety, and who sought to make Thy constitution of the universe the common law of all mankind. We bless Thee for those whose names have gone abroad among the nations of the earth to encourage men in righteousness and to turn many from the evil of their ways. So may Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen. -- Theodore Parker

NEWS CONCERNING TRUTH CENTERS IN OTHER CITIES

DETROIT, MICH.--The Unity Center, 213 Woodward Avenue, has instituted a day of silence, to be observed one day each month. During this day different workers in the Center have charge, and periods of silence and meditation occupy the hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The 27th of each month is the day set aside for this spiritual uplift. We are also advised that since organizing the Sunday School at the Pontchartrain, the number attending has doubled.