The record-union., 1896-05-10
SMALL ASCETICISMS.
Are Still Considered Helps to Chris
tiau life.

Inc GTOIeStdnl WOrlQ mas never taken
kindly to asceticism. 1t has never ac-
cepted, even if it has ever considered,
the Asiatic doctrine that the only ap-
proach to higher life must be through
self-suppression, and has rejected,
without cOntemnfng, the Roman Cath
olic idea that the modification of the
flesh is of itself an Offering grateful to
the Lord. 1t regards st. Simeon Stylites
as on the whole, a presumptuous idiot,
not only of the deepest piety, but of the
keenest intellect-that she found it
''needful to resist her impulse toward
cleanliness as a worldly snare" with
most irrelevent laughter. Nevertheless,
there fingers among Protestant English
men and Scotchmen a feeling that pious
men, especially if ordained, should not
praise innocent pleasures too cordially,
that they had better condemn than ex-
tol the use of wine, that they should
not say much, if anything, about the
pleasure of eating, and that if they
smoke they should plead in excuse that
tobacco is, with their constitutions,
good for the health. The hearty COM
mendation which the Very Rev Dr.
Cameron Lees of Edinburgh recently
bestowed at {. smoking concert upon the
| use of tobacco comes upon them with
a certain shock, and while they respect
his outspokenness, they had rather that
| he had tolerated or even approved the
pipes or cigars in silence. The root of
that feeling, which is manifested by the
newspapers reporting the incident at
some length, is not, we think, as The
Daily Telegraph evidently imagines, a
lingering doubt whether indulgence in
tobacco is consistent with virtue. A
similar doubt exists among a large sec
tion of Christian mankind among all
Americans, for example, in connection
with alcohol-no ministers being per-
mltted by opinion to drink wine-but
| about tobacco it has been finally given
up. Even the strictest have convinced
themselves that the only evil in to-
bacco is its costlineSs, and although.
like tea, it is very dangerous to some
constitutions, and although, like most
other things, it is harmful in excess.
yet among the vast majority it's use is
rather beneficial than injurious. The
impression, which fingered very long
that smokers tend to become drunkardS
has disappeared under the evidence of
facts, all the teetotal races smoking
furlously, and the plant has come to be
regarded in its true light as a sedative
with little perceptible reaction.
The objection to DR.. Cameron Lees
speech, so far as there is any, is rather
that it tended to discredit one of the
small asceticismS, and that small as
ceticisms are still considered helps %
the Christian life. That idea was almost
dominant in religious society sixty
years ago, and sometimes assumed
forms, which, if not ridiculous, were at
least quaint. 1t was, for instance, held
to be wrong for any but the aged to sit
in easy chairs, not, as is now vainIy
imagined, from any ignorant idea as
to the injury done to the figure. but
because ''lolloping'' betrayed a blame
worthy tendency to ease and self in
dulgenCe. That was the origin also of
the extraordinary prejudice against
taking any extra sleep. The old knew
we'll that sleep, when sleep is not need
ed, is to the young the most wearisome
of all obediences, but nevertheless they
believed that to wish to sleep more than
a regulated time, which, according to
modern hygeists, was too short, was a
mark of sluggish self-indulgence, and
it was visited, therefore, with moral
reprobation. Early rising was extrav-
agantly praised, not because it length
ened the day, for the early risers went
to bed early, but because it was disa-
greeable, and some curious rules Of diet
for example, abstinence from sugar
were defended in part upon the same
principle. We have known girls cut off
their curls avowedly because they We're
proud of them, and men go about in
shabby clothes because as they averred
and believed, it was we'll by diminish
ing comfort to promote serious reflec-
tion-London Spectator