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Sermons By Wireless.
Back to the Future. Nearly a century ago, someone in Miami predicted today's church-going experience.
A number of young men in Miami are listening each Sunday to a sermon and music in a church in Pittsburgh Pa. A Newark, N. J. pastor last Sunday preached in an absolutely empty church to a large congregation made up of his former parishioners, some of them as far away as South Bend, Ind. and Lexington, Ky.
This miracle was made possible through the recent remarkable development of the wireless telephone. These experiments in the transmission of sound open up some interesting possibilities.
It is conceivable that in the not-distant future all of the churches might be closed, and all of the preachers, except one, dismissed. This one preacher could be located in the geographical center of the United States and send his sermon all over the land, to be received in the homes of all who desired to hear it.
There would be obvious advantages to this this system. Church pews are notoriously uncomfortable places in which to sleep during a sermon. It would be decidedly more pleasant for the tired business man to rest on his own couch at home. If the sermon happened to be dull he could just unclamp the receiver and snooze until the closing hymn, when he would be free to resume his perusal of the funny paper.
This plan would be a little hard on the wife when she happened to have a new hat, but she could probably could find some other opportunity for its display. And she would save all the Sunday morning bother of dressing for church.
It might not be possible, of course, to do away with quite all the preachers. There might be Methodist sending stations, and Presbyterian, and so on. The listeners could have their receivers turned to Methodist or Presbyterian doctrine, so they would not hear anything subversive of their faith. The denominations would thus be saved to the world.
Some inter-church federation ought to look into the possibilities of this scheme. It would greatly reduce the expense of maintaining churches and would eliminate some mighty poor preaching.
This miracle was made possible through the recent remarkable development of the wireless telephone. These experiments in the transmission of sound open up some interesting possibilities.
It is conceivable that in the not-distant future all of the churches might be closed, and all of the preachers, except one, dismissed. This one preacher could be located in the geographical center of the United States and send his sermon all over the land, to be received in the homes of all who desired to hear it.
There would be obvious advantages to this this system. Church pews are notoriously uncomfortable places in which to sleep during a sermon. It would be decidedly more pleasant for the tired business man to rest on his own couch at home. If the sermon happened to be dull he could just unclamp the receiver and snooze until the closing hymn, when he would be free to resume his perusal of the funny paper.
This plan would be a little hard on the wife when she happened to have a new hat, but she could probably could find some other opportunity for its display. And she would save all the Sunday morning bother of dressing for church.
It might not be possible, of course, to do away with quite all the preachers. There might be Methodist sending stations, and Presbyterian, and so on. The listeners could have their receivers turned to Methodist or Presbyterian doctrine, so they would not hear anything subversive of their faith. The denominations would thus be saved to the world.
Some inter-church federation ought to look into the possibilities of this scheme. It would greatly reduce the expense of maintaining churches and would eliminate some mighty poor preaching.
The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) 22 Jan 1922 Sun Page 40
