The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-07

more liberal and soundly grounded on philo-
sophic principles than we would have hoped
from a body of men usually noted for strict
adherence to their hereditary and narrow
code. The leading members of the confer
ence have evidently bad their eyes couched
and enough Of the daylight of the nineteenth
century has crept in to show them wholeso ne
and pure elements in the theatre, in novel
reading, in modest dancing, and in healthful
outdoor games They frankly ackno wledged
their conversion while they continued to
protest against the abuses to be found in
each. There were, of course, equally sinoere
and honest men to oppose them, who de-
tected Satan hoof and tail in every human
employment outside of legitimate work and
church-going. "Nine-tenths of our amuse-
ments being sinful, said one of these, lit is
best to forego the other tenth"
We attach more Importance to this discus
sion than perhaps at first sight, it seems to
warrant The Methodist fraternity, We
observed the other day, includes vast and
powerful body of our people; being an accre-
tion, for the most part, of the working, intel
ligent middle class. 1t is especially desirable
that its leading ideas on social morality
should be free from bigotry and pref udice
and no subject trenches, at the present time
more deeply on the moral or mental health of
the people than their lack of wholesome, libe-
ralizing amusements. Now Church bodies
yet practical truths of Christianity of which
they are the keepers to varying everyday
popular exigencies. They are led by
political and social reforms oftener
than they lead them; the reason of which
is, we suppose, that each sect, although
the bearer of a banner which should
place her in the van of every reform in
thought or practice, still wears and is ham
pered by whatever peculiar doctrine or opin-
ion formed once her swaddling- clothes If q
Church had its birth in protesting with
bloody testimony against any tenet or prac-
tice, she naturally exaggerates it still, after
centuries have passed, as the chief evil on
EARTH To Christians outside of the churches
the question of apostolic succession, dipping
or sprinkling, elders and bishops, plain Lam
guage and shad-bellied coats, are feather
weights, mere tthes of mint, anise, and
cumin, compared with the eternal tragedy of
a debased human nature striving to rise to an
almighty, ALLOWING God; and every year we
hope brings this profound conviction home to.
the churches also. This very matter of
amusements is the peculiar bette 110jT of the
Methodist Church. Dissipation and wauton-
ness of English society terrified the Church
into existence in the first place. 1t is hardly
to be expected therefore, that it should be
able to regard the subject even now with a
cool, unprejudiced eye. But our Methodist
brethren should be able to perceive the diff
ference between the cancerous luxury of an
enervated court and the absolute necessity of
relaxation, both physical and mental, for a
people nervous, bilious, and over-worked as
are the Americans. Climatic influences are
more exhausting in the United States than in
Europe. There is in every class the feverish,
struggle for money or success unknown
in any other country. The whole
nation, male and female, is possessed by a
demon of unrest and anxiety. The hig gher
we ascend in the social scale the more intense
is the strain upon body and brain. The am
bilious professional and business man rarely
takes breath to enjoy the wide life God has
opened; one day is but a burden scarcely
lifted before another falls upon him. While
this is true, it is also true that there is no
other people among whom amusement is so
little understood or practised. The inevita-
BILE consequence follows. You might as we'll
try to choke burning geyser as to shut down
! a man or woman's whole nature into money
making or church-going. There is an excess
| of animal spirits, a heat in the blood which
will find vent. The Italian sings; the French
| man Dances the nun and Methodist, who can
neither sing nor dance, fall into frances and
see heaven opened by the aid of hysteria and
catalepsy. The American 80 far has found
his escape-valve in whisky. ''He drinks, -
said keen-sighted foreigner lately, 'fnot for
social enjoyment, but as physical necessity,
to relieve apparently some actual cerebral
overstrain" One of the clergymen in New
ark stated that SIN consequence of the love
of dancing, every third child born in France
is illegitimate." Our friend should be sure
of his facts. Paris, it is true, has the vices
peculiar to all the great rendezvous fol
strangers in the world. The French anG
Irish rural population, who amuse them
selves heartily more than any other people
are the chastest in Europe; the least so arr
the Swedes, whose sole relaxation is our owl
whisky.
We trust the time will soon come when ou
Methodist brethren will be led to follow tn
common sense of mankind in believing tha
whatever tends to keep the animal in MAJ
in check and develop his higher nature, what
ever makes him better appreciate his brothe
man, and more thankful for the beautiful
joyful world he lives in, is 'for the glory O
God, whether it be hymn or sermon, move
dance, or drama.
FEW SOBER WORDS TO THE DEMO
CRACY.
From the N. Y World.
! For the last three or four years the WOrl
has been Oo borrow an apostolic phrase
, ''instsnt q. e., urgent) in season and out {
! season" in trying to impress upon the Dem
cratic party the wisdom of hanging its ligh
on the bow of the ship to disclose the rocl
and quicksands to be Stunned in its cours
q instead of hanging them on the stern to ca
back useless glare on the tumultuous waite
' through which it has passed. Like mo
8 givers of unsought advice, we have som
o times been paid with kind of recognize
y that was not quite agreeable; but so undoub
u inc ia our cnn6daDpa in the fOrOa Of trut