Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1877-08-14
LAUGH AND GROW FAT.
Rev. J. A. Grny-s Sunday Evening
Lecture.

The regular Sdhday evening lecture
vas deliveredias usual, and notwith-
standing the sultry, close weather
prevailing, the church was crowd ed
with an interested throng. The lee
ture was a plea for humor and cheer
fulness in religion, and the lecturer
illustrated his argument in his elo-
guent and forcible manner.
Like a Medicine"
We Americans have an irrepressible
sense of the humorous. Soine other
nations have a literature richer in wit,
but in a broad, genial and %pervading
humor, we are excelled by none This
humor Is a perpetual feast. The
names OF our humorists are greeted
W nth a smile around the world. The
names of such writer's from Artemus
Ward to Mark Twain, are household
words.
Blu is not this a beautiful character
istic of our life. IL is we'll enough for
your fat, jolly, inoffensive man, to al
ways be looking on the Iudicrous side
OF life. but is it best for sober, thought
ful men to be carried away by such
nonsense. Is not the maxim, laugh
and grow fat" a pernicious one that
ought to be stunned. Many people
declaim against the mental dissipation
of humor.
There can be no true culture that
does not include all the elements of
human nature. The true manhood
consists in he proper development
and balance of all the faculties. There
Is danger in giving undue prominence
to any capacity. What wrecks have
been occasioned by giving loose rein
to the Imagination. 1t debiliiates and
obscures the judgment and reason
when IL gains the ascendency, and The
nan degenerstes into a mere dreamer:
but because of this danger do you say
the imagination must be extinguished
or ignored? IL has its place and purpose,
and without II a man is imperfect.
A mar Is just as imperfect without a
sense Of humor. His soul is a barren
soil. But many people protest against
the decentralization of hunor. Good
Christian people regard it as a sinful
indulgence, and place great emphasis
upon the statement that Christ never
smiled" This assertion is utterly
without authority and is entirely i'm
thtRI 6boa lSOI'AO ~
that the use OF humor is Inappropriate
for the pulpit aud detrimental to Chris
tan excellence. It's indulgence by the
preacher il denoniinsted Sensational
preaehing''-as if all preaching were
not sensational. 1t must produce
some kind of sensation OF drowsiness,
or OF Indifference, or interest. The
strong, robust Christian teachers OF
history were men of genial mirthfnl-
ness. When Luther determined to
retire from the world, he carried to- his
monastic cell In one hand the Bible
and in the other a book of Greek COM
edies. Under Whitfield's preaching,
1t is said the people wept and laughed
through their tears. Wesley and rare
old John Bunyan were men of humor.
Any man who will read the history of
the Church will find that in the days
when this idea of separation from the
world, of gloomy aud secluded medi-
tation prevailed, then fraud and per
jury and intolerance were rife. But
when the sou has its robust sense of
the Divine fatherhood, its brightest
consciousness OF Divine goodness. it
realizes the sentiment OF that song
chanted on the hills of Zion: "When
the Lord turned again our captivity
we were like them hat dream; hen
was our mouth filled with laughter
and our tongue with singing" There
many good uses of humor that are
not To be despissd. IL is "A win of life
cheers the weary work and pain
of life. Kane tells It's that m of the
most valuable men in his crew was
one who kept mp the depressed spirits
OF his men with his fund of mirth. II
is a formidable weapon with which to
attack the follies of fashion and bring
down the ~absurdities of p~retense.
True humor is founded On a conscious
rectitude, a realization OF the worth of
brotherhood, and sheds a radience
over all our lie.