Religion: A Happy Layman

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The strugglingest man in church on Sundays is generally the fellow known as an "active Christian layman." Other members of the congregation glow with the satisfaction of doing their weekly Christian duty, but the active Christian layman knows that church attendance must be only the beginning of his week's witness. His constant problem: how to serve the church well without having 1) his business associates look askance at him as a do-gooder, or 2) clergymen complain that he is trying to take over their ministry.

Lee H. Bristol Jr., a 3O-year-old Manhattan businessman, is a good example of a layman who works hard for Christianity without stumbling into either pitfall. He is a devout Episcopalian. As a licensed lay reader, a synod delegate and field worker for his church's New York diocese, he tries his best to gain more followers for what he calls "the sleeping giant" of U.S. religious bodies. As vice president of the Laymen's Movement for a Christian World, he tries to make Christian principles felt in various segments of public life, e.g., by helping to get a prayer room installed in Manhattan's U.N. headquarters (TIME, Nov. 10, 1952). A talented organist and amateur composer, he has also written and set to music some 30 up-to-date hymns.

A new book, Hymns for Children and Grownups (Farrar, Straus & Young, $3.75), is Layman Bristol's biggest contribution to the church to date. Written with Co-Author Harold W. Friedell, organist at Manhattan's fashionable St. Bartholomew's Church, it is a collection of 185 Christian hymns, clearly arranged and brightly decorated, with a very special purpose. Most hymnbooks are written for use in church. Bristol's book is expressly designed for the home. His thesis: "Hymn-singing can easily become a delightful part of family life."

Humming on the Beach. Bristol's business is advertising — he is products advertising manager of the Bristol-Myers chemical firm, of which his father is president —and he has used the tricks of his trade in working out his hymnbook. Last summer he tested each hymn on a "representative panel of children" before selecting it. Writes Bristol: "When we actually heard the children humming some of the melodies on the beach, we felt certain we were on the right track." To help out at family songfests, Bristol and Friedell have included classifications not normally found in hymnals, e.g., "When You Want to Sing Some Negro Spirituals." "When You Think About Worldwide Christianity." There are also some worthwhile modern hymns, including 29 of Friedell's and Bristol's own compositions. Old-fashioned hymnologists, however, would be surprised at some omissions, e.g., Rock of Ages (composed by Bristol's great-great-great-uncle, Thomas Hastings), Jerusalem the Golden.

Halves of a Ticket. The selections reflect Layman Bristol's wish to make the hymnal, intended primarily for children, a "happy book." To appeal to children, they have stressed hymns about Christ's boyhood and everyday life, e.g.,O Master of the Callous Hand, Bristol's own My Master Was a Worker.*

Last week, his book already cheered by religious and parents' groups, Bristol was back working Sundays and weekdays on other phases of his active lay apostolate.