Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 262, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1914 — The Christian and Amusements [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Christian and Amusements

By REV. WILLIAM EVANS. D. D.

Dirwtor of Bible Com, Moody Bible ImAsSs

TEXT—And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do in the name of the Lord Jesus, glvirjg thanks to God and the Father hv him.—Col. 3:17.

1. The true Christian will realize the true relation that should exist between work and pleasure. If life is not to be one round of work, it most certainly is not to be all one round of pleasure. Work, not amusement, is the chief end of man. Let us not miss this point—

work, not amusement, is the business of life. God has laid upon every man the necessity of work, and for this reason has distributed “to every man his work.” Is it not just in this connection that we may be justified in finding fault with the professional sport, the man who gives up his whole life to pleasure? When the main thing in college and university life is athletics are we net justified in protesting that life’s main purpose is being lost sight of? Play and amusement is but a side issue in life; when it becomes the whole thing, then it is harmful and sinful, no matter whether the amusement In question be in the forbidden category or not; then even Innocent amusement becomes morally bad. Amusement ts to work what whetting the scythe is to harvesting; he who never stops to create an edge toils hard and cuts but little, while he who whets the scythe all day cuts none. If the mother enjoys amusements more than she does her children, the wife more than her domestic duties, the husband more than his home, the man more than his labor, and the student more than his books, then amusements are harmful and wrong. 2. The true Christian will see to it that his amusements are really recreative, and not dissipative. . A man may lie so long in a bath that he comes out of it all exhausted, or he can tqke a plunge or shower and come out all the better prepared for the duties of life. So is it with amusements; it may be just the opposite. The amusements of the Christian should build up lost tissue, rest ths tired body and rejuvenate the jaded mind, they must build up the whole man physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. 1. The Christian’s pleasures will recreate physically. The body of the Christian is the temple of the holy ghost It is Incumbent upon him therefore that he kefp his body in as good, clean, pure/ and healthy a condition as possible. The body needs relaxation; It needs rest from the strain and tension of life; it needs new blood, new nerve tissues; it needs by means of recreation, to be better fitted for the real tasks that lie within its sphere of labor. The test the Christian must apply to his pleasures is this: do they recreate and restore the waste tissues of the body? Excess in athletics is not recreation. Young men have died from over-strain in running; girls have been ruined for life by excessive rope jumping. Many pleasures dissipate the powers of the body instead of recreating them. Apply such a test to certain forms of popular amusements prevalent today: the theater, the dance, the card party. Do they recreate, or do they dissipate? Do they violate the laws of physical health by their late hours, their impure atmosphere, their mode of dress and conduct, or are they perfectly consistentwith the observance of the laws of good health and hygiene? If these amusements violate the laws of health, then, until such times as they can be brought within the realm of recreative pleasures, the Christian must place them on the forbidden list 2. The pleasures of the Christian should recreate mentally. The physical must not be developed at the expense of the mental. Giantism mast by no means supplant intellectualism. Mind is greater than body, as Gladstone and Bismarck are greater than John L. Sullivan or James J. Jeffries. The Christian must ask himself,'therefore, "What effect do my pleasures and amusements have upon my mind, my thought, my thinking? Do they build up. ennoble, purify, sanctify; or do they debase, befoul, besmirch, debauch? Is my thinking higher, nobler, more God-Uke because of the pleasures in which I engage?” , All things are not to be jiidged by the eye; the mind discerns also. Shakespeare speaks of the man “who hath a body filled with a vacant mind, gets him to rest crammed with distressful bread.” The Christian is to judge his amusements by this standard. Apply this principle to literature. What books do we read? If .the Christian’s master should Inquire: "What readest thou?” what would be our reply? Beware lest our minds be come diseased by the reading of light and trashy literature. -.