Morning journal and courier., 1883-02-13

, \ monk or hermit. He frightened his hear CTS through the exercise of his tremendous . will-power into the belief that what every body to-day knows to be perfectly consistent with religious living was utterly contrary to the commands of Christ or to obligations to him. If we look back to our own childhood we shall all of us recall many things which ! the fathers regarded as wrong, but which we I now fully understand not to be so.''
 |, Dr. Finney was not the only preacher who. : gave his own opinions for Christian truth. ! It is difficult to conceive the immense harm which has resulted in the past from such 8 course. And the evil still exists. The ser ! mons of the early Methodist preachers
 blazed with denunciations of jewelry and , | ribbons as incompatible with piety. Only @ few years since a Methodist conference in 1 Ohio passed resolution against the game of
 croquet. Its members probably never visited I Martha's Vineyard as the annual camp meet
 ing drew near. An aged D. D. said to me T not long since that rolling ten pins in his college days would have subjected him to ex- \ pulsion from ''Yale.'' Then bowling alleys ! were not spared severe scathing from the ! pulpit. When they were first attached to |, Andover Theological seminary loud reraon- \ strances were heard. At Presbyterian gen. k eral assembly held recently at Saratoga, one
 ! of it's principal acts was the passing of res
 \ olution against dancing. The I71dependent \ tells us that ''the week after the resolution was promulgated three of the Presbyterian
 | churches of Brooklyn had ,picnics at which
 dancing was freely indulged in"
 ,t Now it is sad fact when ministers, speak i ing professedly for Christ, utter year after year opinions on that class of indulgences ! that come under the law of 'sthings indifer- ! ent," which multitudes of good, well bal aneed Christian men and women cannot &C., \ cept as correct and wise. It inevitably de- | tracts from their influence as teachers. It
 has been and is potent factor in the decline
 of ministerial influence. The pulpit, forced | hv a nf ho hod l to recede from many positions unwisely
 taken. It cannot afford to be driven to much farther retreat lest it forfeit the respect
 of the congregations, who, with the Bible ! open before them, will judge for themselves | what it's principles demand in social life. I \ may add there are many Christian households ! where these amusements are conscientiously | practiced as a safer plan than prohibition of | them The question is submitted, for a can-
 did answer based upon facts, whether in ! those families where these amusements are
 indulged in by parents and children together ! they have proved vicious in their tendency? Do gamblers and dissipated men come most frequently from those familiar in the domes- ! tic circle with these amusements and to whom game of cards or an hours dance is no 1 more than checkers or blind mans buff Are ! they not rather recruited from those who have never had legitimate provision made for l innocent indulgence in these amusements at ' home?
 | 2. This indiscriminate denunciation of cer- I tain popular amusements as sinful and utter l Iy opposed to Christian life has tendency l to divert the thoughts from that which con- I stitutes the very essence of piety-love to l God and love to our neighbor.
 1 That much abused and misinterpreted text, l. stBe not conformed to this world" which l has been hurled again and again against dan ! cing and card playing, has attached to it ] some very significant words which have seemingly been overlooked, ,-''But be ye I transformed by the renewing of your mind" Unworldliness is a transformation of the ! mind. To refrain from certain customs | adopted by those not Christians does not in- | dicate spirituality. ''The fruit of the Spirit l
 is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekuess, temperance, faith" l Self denial, taking up the cross and following l Christ, has it's chief application in putting 1 down selfshness with all it's hateful brood l termed the works of the flesh (Gal. v., 19, 1 2O) and walking in love as Gods dear chil 1 dren. To make it consist in abstaining from | certain amusements not condemned in the l Bible and not wrong only as they may, like l any pleasure, be carried to excess, is to place upon it narrow and unwarranted construc- | ton. Things are not necessarily worldly be- 1 cause practiced and enjoyed by multitudes | not Christians. Music, skating, croquet in- | terest and gratify all who have Q taste for | them irrespective of their religious character. | The true and Bible line of demarkation be- | tween the church and the world is the state | of the heart-whether or no 1t is ruled by | love. Rev. Mir. Harris is betrayed into a
 very common error when he declares, as re
 ported in your columns-'tIt is said church people dance and it cannot be wrong for
 others to do so. They do so from one of two
 reasons. Either they Christians only ia
 name or they are backslidden Christians and have no weight of Christian character as 7 understand Christian character. Any world ling knows that dancing is incompatible with the Christian hfe.''
 Such statement is misleading and injuri
 ous in it's impression as to the essence of | Christianity. It shows that he has been | building Christian character on abstinence from certain customs which in themselves have no moral quality. It is harsh and u1e- christian judgment of thousands of earnest, 1 loving, Christ-like people, than whom many r pastors can testify none are more earnest and abounding in every good work. They are neither Christians only ln name nor back l slidden Christians. They h00e qoaght of
 C7ristian character and infuence because dtey bear tue fruit 0f tte spirit. The effect of such sweeping and unwarranted assertions as Rev. Mir. Harris makes is to be deplored, as they l set up artificial standards of character and conduct in place of the simple standards of Gods word and lead to Pharisaism instead of Christianity. The Rev. Dr. Hawes, with broader charity and greater wisdom, admits that indulgence in these amusements is not incompatible with Christian character. He  adds immensely to the difficulty of winning souls to Christi But we ask is it necessari ly so? Is it not possible that we have made this difficulty in part by creating fictitious conscience, teaching things to be wrong
 which are not essentially wrong? Have we not been guilty of placing burdens on indi- viduals the reasonableness of which they could not see and so either driven them away from the church or detracted from the joyousness and naturalness of their Chris c. h<I a1 flnk &In nr,T11. pit has laid itself open to censure in past ages by multiplying restrictions beyond what is required" May we not be doing it now and expressing many minds in the church and keeping many out of the church Is there not urgent need of more discrimina- tion in our statements in order that we may ] command more fully the respect and follow ing of the people to whom in this day our words have only so much force as there is force in them ? I cannot better close than address already referred to of Professor l Dwight: ssNow I am sure that when our Christianity recognizes fully what 1t is when it understands that it is the all controlling l love to God in the heart and not a set of rules of social life or individual practice in indifferent things, 1t becomes better life ih { each mans soul who possesses it and more alluring power to those to whom 1t offers 1t ( self. It is, however, the freedom of this 1 sort which our Christianity of the present tune IS Deglnn1DR Lo RiIOW Wn1cn IS aWaR6n- ing as we cannot doubt, in the minds of I some gloomy feeling with reference to a l decline of piety in the churches. But have t we not lost sight of what Christianity is love in the heart, not minute rules such as I ths Jews at every turn of their t lives; the liberty of love uniting the soul to ( Christ, not the obligation to satisfy the judg ment of every fellow believer in all the exer- I cises of that judgment under the influence of 6 his peculiar or wrong education The s changes of the recent times are not all bad e they are many of them good; they are bring | ing us to ths true idea of the way to serve T the master. They are. delivering us from i what was temporary and preparatory in the 8 Old Testament and leading us to know the b central and permanent principles of the New a Testament It is better that it should be G so." A CoNGREGATIeNAL PASTOR. n
 si
 Chinese Traits. fl
 From the Centuryl n
 There is B mistaken notion in the East that b he Chinese are always humble and suomls- d