Morning journal and courier., 1883-03-03

place, but to become engrossed with them t,
 the exclusion of other and higher work i
 detrimental degrading and sinful. There i
 such thing ss recreation which is right
 there is such a thing as dissipation which i
 wrong You may so conduct these amuse
 ments as to make them innocent to yourselve
 and harmless to others, or by excess and ex
 travagance and improper hours and associa
 tions you may injure yourselves and other
 and bring upon these amusements the re
 buke which they sometimes have richly de
 served and received,
 I have had abundant reason from results to believe that such advice is well adapted tc produce good effects. It carries conviction
 and draws young people to 8 pastor instead of repelling them. After speaking. in re sponse to inquiries, such words from my pull pit one Sabbath, I was met at the door by one
 of the most intelligent and devoted workers | in my church, who said to me, 1T am glad to hear from the pulpit little common sense on this subject" Nothing is gained, but
 rather much is lost by extravagant, unquai | fled statements such as ''No true Christian | will dance or play cards" Facts to which | thousands can testify prove such statements l false. There are communities where these | amusements are as common from youth up l as driving or skating; where nobody dreams | of harm specially in connection with them as distinct from other amusements. In such | communities the churches are strong and the 1 life of the people as pure and Christian as 1 where these amusements are frowned upon. l Our education and surroundings very materI- ally affect our views of the right or wrong of certain practices which are very properly chased undsr the head of ''things indifer- ! ent." There is scarcely an amusement which | Christian people allow themselves to which some persons do not object. Not COR | science simply, but an enlightened conscience is prime necessity for correct judgment. The freaks of conscience among religious | people have afforded some of the strangest 1 phenomena of human life. When Jenny ! Lind was in Boston she went to hear Father | Taylor preach. He was praising her singing | without knowing she was present, when a ong, lank sailor, who was sitting on the pull | lpft steps, slowly unwound himself, stood up and asked if 8 Christian who died at one of Jenny Lind's concerts would go to heaven. Father Taylor glared moment at his ques- tioner and then replied, 'sA Christian will go 1 to heaven wherever he dies and fool will always be fool, even when sitting on the pulpit stairs.
 For years a certain branch of the Presbyte- rian church has been in violent agitation over the question of the introduction of musical instruments and the singing of hymns in the sanctuary. Just now the Mennonites of Manitoba are conscientiously divided into the ok-and-Eye party and the Button party. The former are conservative and see danger and worldliness in buttons; the latter are radical and progressive, insisting upon the innocence of buttons. F'The Dunkards, as a matter of conscience and 'tnon-conformity to the world, have rules opposing the build ing of fine houses and the using of sleigh bells. They prohibit the sisters from wear ing rings or breastpins, or jewelry. They declare that it is wrong for the brethren to wear fur or cloth hats, or frock or sack coats or dusters or to part their hair on one side or to have it ''shingled." Teaching singing schools has also incurred the wrath of their council as worldly" Years ago among the Welsh Presbyterians men in some instances are known to have been expelled because they carried an umbrella, this habit being supposed to argue high degree of pride and worldliness. As I write there lies be- fore me in Holiness paper lament over the wickeduess of clergymen in playing cro- quet. Each one of 't these sects is crying FsBe not conformed to this world" 7" and mak- ing the apostolic injunction of non-conformity to the world consist in external separateness in the discarding of buttons and sleigh bells, and breastpins. and hats and coats, and parting or ''shingling" of the hair and cro- quet. This misapplication of Paufs grand principle, this whole haggling over questions of dress and amusements, instead of seeking the true separateness in the inner life, lin the renewing of the mind" is shameful and fraught with evil. There is famous saying of St. Augustine-s'Love and do all things" that covers the subject. In other words, let love, the essential principle of Chris tianity, rule your heart, and the subjects of themselves. The Rev MT Munger, pastor of the Congregational church at North Adams, Mass, in the chapter on amusements in his excellent book ''On the Threshold, with clear discrimination truthfully says: t'The present perplexity largely comes from accepting, in a hereditary way, distinctions that once may have been necessary, but are. so no longer. The amusements and vices of English society under the Stuarts were so interwoven that it was easier to sweep out the whole by a single act of heroic protest than it was to enter upon the nice work of separation. It may have been wise social economy, but it was a mistake to insert this indiscriminate cleansing of society into the fabric of religion. The attitude of the Puri- tan was, I will forego all pleasures till have crushed out Cavalier vices. It was so akin to religion that it became Identified with it
 vices and pleasures were put in the same category. But the stress that constrained the Puritan passed away, leaving set of dis functions as to amusements, all interwoven with religion, but forming no essential part of it, and having no basis in clear thought. Hence all moral training in New England has had large negative element it's sign has been the not doing certain things Mean
  which ultimat ly regulates such matters, is not keyed to such note but is a gift, and spirit that transforms all things. Our tradi- tiens and our knowledge have come into con fiict. One side says it has always been held wrong to do this and that, and therefore we must abstain. The other side denies the binding force of such logic, and, as always happens when barriers are thrown down, rushes into extremes. On one side is bigo- try, on the other license" These words are well worthy of careful consideration.
 But I must pass to answer some of the questions proposed to me by your core spondents. To the first question ot MT. Hammond reply: No amusement is worldly in itself which does not necessarily violate the fundamental law of Christian life-love to God and man. The gladiatorlal shows Of pagan Rome involved cruelty and death, and were therefore essentially worldly. Danc- ing, card playing opera and theatre going
 may be so conducted as to become worldly, or they may be and are so practiced by many who exercise 8 careful discrimination as to time, degree, association and the char acter of the plays that you have no more right or reason to say they are worldly amusements to those who thus indulge in them than are ordinary concerts or exhibl tions or skating or the games played in the home circle and church parlor, to which none but few fanatical men object. When the Apostle used the language 'tBe not conformed to this world," it was not as 8 warning against certain forms of dress or amHse- ments It was the enunciation of definite and essential principle which would remain unchanged through all the ages. What it's significance to him was, what the blessed fruitage of transformation s.by the renewing of the mind," he distinctly sets forth in the following verses of the chapter. I commend the careful pc rusal of this chapter to all who would gain clear conception of Paul's idea of worldliness in distinction from unworldliness. The spe- cia1 nae which Mir. H. and many others make of Paea's term ''the world'' I object to as un scriptural, narrow and injurious. It mis- leads by diverting the thoughts from the essence of Christianity and setting up artifc- ia1 standards of character and conduct More over, as thus employed, it has 0aTfG6le meaning. It was excluded in the past forms of dress and amusement, which MT. II. and every sensible man approves as eminently proper and harmless. In some religious sects it is even now employed, as I have shown, to debar the wearing of articles and indulgence of practices which are so evident ly without moral significance that the class ing of them worldly seems perfectly ab- surd to all intelligent, unbiased persons It surely is time'that we stopped this narrow Of 1kao