St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-10-19
A Sermon on PLAY.

Now that we are in the midst of the
bright vacation days, it may do US all good
to read these helpful words which are
| quoted by an exchange from a sermon
| written by wise and good man on the sub
| ject of play and its use. He says:
PLAY is neither idleness nor folly. 1t
is one of the many good things which have
come into your life from Heaven. 1t is a
| gift from God it is one of his wonderful
works When He made the beautiful earth
and the sky, and the body ard the soul of
man, he made the happy play of childhood.
It is part of your life as truly as prayer
is as truly a. the soul itself is ana it is
part of the life of children all the world
over. If it were possible to journey with
the sunlight and see all that it sees, and
go round and round the globe with it, we
would everywhere see children at play
Now, the first thing | want you to see
is, that this playing of you boys and girls
in the streets or anywhere else is pleas
ure to God. He is a God SO kind and low
ing that he delights in everything innocent
that is a delight TO you. Just as he de-
lights in the songs of birds and the color
aci fragrance Of flowers, he delights in the
play of childhood. 1t was because he was
thinking of it as pleasure that he sent
Zechariah to tell the builders of Jerusalem
the good news that children would soon
be playing in the streets.
Il know poet who made a song on the
happiness of poor children at their first day
of play in spring. All the winter they
were shut up in their homes for want of
Shoes but now the winter was past and
the sun shining and the air warm and the
bairnies, barefooted and happy, went out
on the pavement again
Their wee shoeless feet have forgotten their PAIN
As they walk in the sun on the pavement again.
Something like this must be the Joy of
God as he looks down on the same sight.
God has made play part of your life
because he wants you to be strong. He
has work waiting in the years to come for
though it is not all the same kind of work,
all of it is work which will want strength
for it's doing therefore he will not always
have you at tasks. He has divided the time
for tasks with the time for play. He will
have you out in the open air. By your
games he will have your body in endless
motion. You shall run and not be weary;
you shall leap and dance and race and climb,
so that every part of you may be made
strong for the work that lies before you in
life.
"For another thing, God wants you to
have happy gateway into life Nobody
can tell beforehand whether your after-life
will be happy. But God in his love has
secured that the time of play shall be
happy. In games you are joined together
Just as we who are old are in our tolls |
The playground is little world. You can
not have any pleasure in any of it's games |
unless you try to have the others pla, ing |
with you as happy as yourself. To be un
kind, unjust, unfair, or upgenerous in a
game is to spoil it or bring it to an end.
"Surely this is a new, rich addition to |
our knowledge of God, when we discover
that the same kind Father who gave his |
Son to die for u.s. thst he might deliver US
from sin and death, made the joy and |
play of boys and girls in the streets and in
thet house. May you carry something of
" = CT it all through life with you and
TO. SEED mi God has bee. so
, Lvwo worleondEfjoy-the world of
yoa.Oppy childhopd. and the world that
awaits YOU in Heaven - Er.