Morning journal and courier., 1883-02-13
The Indifferent Things.

What Congregational Pastor Thinks
 About Dancing, Card Playing, Etc.
 An Interesting and Instructive Dfscas-
 sion.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND CsUR1ER:
 That celebrated preacher, Rev. F. W. Rob- ertson, remarks in one of his sermons, "It is wisely taught by St. Paul that he who does anything with offenee-that is, with 8 feeling that it is wrong-does wrong, To him it is wrong even though it be not wrong abstract ly. Therefore 1t is always dangerous to null tiply restrictions and requirements beyond what is essential because men feeling them selves hemmed in break the artificial barrier, but breaking it with sense of guilt do there fore become hardened in conscience and pre- pared for transgression against command ments which are divine and of eternal obli- gation.'' These words embody an important principle which has 8 practical bearing on the subject of amusements. For years cer- tain teachers in the Christian church have denounced without discrimination both the use and the abuse of dancing and card play ing. The young have been solsnnIy warned against these practices as sinful and all church members urged to avoid them as in- consistent with their profession.
 There is a large and increasing number of both ministers and laymen who feel that this course has been unwise and prejudicial to Christianity. Some of the reasons which lead them to this conclusion will give.
 l. Such broad and indiscriminate denun- citation has tended to lessen the respect of many excellent people for their pastors as men of sound judgment. This is evident from the fact that, notwithstanding the pro. test of these pastors, the members of our churches have come to indulge more and more in these amusements. What Professor Baldwin says of the North church is largely true of the leading Congregational churches of New England. "Thirty years ago there were many Christian families in this church who thought dancing to be necessarily wrong; there are few such now. Then there were many Christian families in this church who thought card playing necessarily wrong there are few such now"
 The utterances of the pulpit have failed to convince the people of any wrong in these amusements as they ordinarily practice them in the home and social circle They find nothing in Gods word which condemns them. They know by observation and expe- rience that these amusements can be indu1ged in at proper times and under proper circum- stances without spiritual harm and do afford innocent and healthful recreation. The warnings, therefore, of their pastors fall upon their ears as idle words, are without force to them and are received simply as an expression of individual opinion. They re. member that years ago just such warnings were directed against practices which are now unqnestioned by all reasonable persons. l
 In Professor Timothy Dwight's admirable l paper read at the last Connecticut State con ference of Congregational churches, I find | these significant sentences There is less 1 disposition to judge our neighbors' acting | and thinking than there used to be. And | the evil of this habit of our fathers was that they set up a standard of their own-to which they insisted that their neighbors should conform-in the region of what the apostle calls the indifferent things. The reader of the biography of the late Dr. Fin nov, for example. will find most striking H. lustrations of this fact. This eminent