Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-08-17
THE STRAIGHT JACKET IN RELI
GlDN

work and thorough Sabbath School educa-
ton, it is simply money-making enterprise
gotten up by few real estate spectators for
their own temporal profit, and that the only
purpose religion serves is as cloak to hide
the mercenary motives of the chief engineers
of the enterprise. AS that paper is always
reliable, and possesses unusual facilities for
obtaining information, The SUNDAY GLOBE
is bound to accept its conclusions.
There is another feature of the festival
that has been frequently remarked by Wis
itors. We allude to the almost impenetrable
gloom that pervades the grounds. Men and
women walk about with long, dreary faces,
scarcely ever smiling, while laugh is sell
dom heard, and when started is instant
~ checked by the frowns of the godly mis-
anthropists who occupy the chief places in
the synagogue. The effect is to drive away
all gayety or mirth from the assembly and
infect nearly everybody with what some peo-
pie call "the blues" After day spent in
the sombre purview of the Lake Park, men
find themselves in condition of mind fit for
treasons, stratagems, and spoils, for there is
nothing more exasperating to the human
mind that has not become accustomed
to the stzaight-jacket system of repres-
sion practiced at many religious gatherings,
than to be compelled to restrain all those
efervescent impulses that come to most ma
lures while amid the shady..groves of some
suburban retreat. There is nothing enter
tanning in place that applies facial
straight-jacket on any intimation of an out
burst of innocent hilarity, and instruction
given under such circumstances is as seed
cast on barren ground.
We have already referred to the senseless
practice of some well meaning men in invest
ing religion with all possible gloomy sur
roundings. The bible teaches US that the
practice of Christianity brings joy unspeak-
able and full of glory to the believer, yet as
rule there is little in religious assemblies
to convey the idea that the rites and SER
vices of the church were other than a dis
agreeable duty. Occasionally a preacher
speaks OF the light side-the silver lining of
the cloud that is popularity supposed to
typify the Christian religion. He let's in a
little sunshine into the sanctuary, and pic
lures the beauties of deity in such manner
as to cause happy feeling to spring up in
the heart of every nearer. It is
notable to contrast the appear
ance of congregation that has listened to
such discourse with that of the ordinary
sort. There is a smile on every face, a
gladstone spring to the footstep, a cheerful
animation to the voice as they speak of how
great things the Lord hath done for them.
It is not the purpose of the SUNDAY
GLOBE to be censorioua. It esteems con-
sistent Christian under all circumstances and
at all times. But it has no sympathy for
hypocrites and shams who, like the managers
of the Lake Park swindle, steal the livery of
heaven to serve the devil ln-or, what is the
same thing, to make of the religion of Christ
thing of barter and sale. They, too,by in
vesting their services with the mask of
solemnity convey wrong impression of the
character of religion. They in effect tell
the people that in order to be truly good
they must repress all evidences of that
mirthful nature with which they have been
endowed and give free scope to the dominion
of melancholy, that heavy pail, that
"Sits on u.s. as cloud along the sky,
Which will not let the sunbeams through, nor
yet
Descend in rain and end; but spreads itself
'Iwixt heaven and earth, like envy between
man
And man-an everlasting mist
Happily the gloom that once wasoniversal
in church services is being rapidly dissipated.
The austerity of the old Calvanists is becom-
ing tempered by the light of higher civil
zation and better conception of the attri-
butes OF deity. It is by no means as COM
mon now as it once was for the young to be
horrl6ed with vivid picture of the hell over
whish they were hanging. The religion of
hate is dying out, and the religion of love is
taking it's place. The change is q happy
one, over which we can afford to reio,ce.
yet the transformation is not as complete "a
we could desire. While the sanctuary is not,
perhaps, the place to laugh, it certainly is
the place of joy of less demonstratiye
character-a Joy that fills the heart to un-
utterable fullness, and not place to wrap
ones self up in a mantle of mourning and
weeping. The gospel is glad tidings, and he
who in expounding it takes occasion to throw
a wet blanket over the feelings of his hearers
does not comprehend the nature of the mes
sage brought to this world by Christ,