The Portland daily press., 1898-06-01

| from every appearance OF coarseness and
head us off from every approach toward
the undignlfed and the unworthy; but
| give us enough appreciation OF the drolI
to keep us from getting lntolerably dull.
| Or consider the minister as theolog-
ian; which is thing that every minister
must more or less be. Not all theology is
| good theology, and not all good theoloov
is good for the pulpit Now what an i'm.
provement in all our theology it would
make, if the sense OF humor were diffused
| like q gentle atmosphere along our initial
lectual horizons. How many things which
we have sometimes believed, driven into
| them by some small process of logic based
on false premises, or drawn into them
| by some traditional Interpretation of the
scriptures. would appear to us too ridicu-
lous to be longer entertained. And how
we should be delivered from draaain zinc
incontinently into the pulpit all the I'M
cooked game which we have brought
down In our long huntings after truth.
| But there is better reason than either
Of these why minister should be CON
graduated II he has the sense of humor.
| The more l pursue my own calling, and
the more observe other men in their
pursuit of the same, the more / am per-
Suaded that any man who is to do God 8
service in the Christian ministry ought
| to be tremendously wholesome, and
| sane, and high-hearted. There is SO much
l
and SO sure to be more or less disappoint-
ed. His work is 80 important-and men
esteem it SO lightly. He is called upon SO
often to enter the house of mourning.
and weep with those who weep. How
lachrymose and unbearable he will some
tlme become, II he has no sap of humor
| in his soul
On particular occasions, too. nothing
coud stand him In stead better than this
| lightly esteemed trait For-hear met
VIII never DO for minister to get m ad--
there are Others In every parish who can
do enough OF that: 1t will never do for
him to get disgruntled, or to be easily
| alarmed about things. And I know not
| what else will so easily preserve him from
| these pitfalls as Ssense of the ridiculous.
Parishes are fearfully and ridiculously
made up In every quarter of the harvest
held things are constantly happening that
will tend to make one discouraged Or mad
| unless he can see the funny side of them.
A minister breaches sermon on the
| Bible, perhaps, and some good brother
who hasn't opened his own Bible for ten
years will complain that the preacher has
| taken his Bible away from him. He
gives utterance to some idea which has
been current among Intelligent Christian
people for at least half century, and
some father in Israel will expatiate with
| him on keeping clear of innovations. He
has been, we will say. for dozen or
twenty years, diligent and painstaking
student of Gods truth; and some good
woman who by native equipment and by
training is alto gether precluded from be-
| ing student of anything, will want to
| talk with him and make him a trife
sounder and wiser in his views. He may
even discover sometime that he is one of
| the.few people in hhis parish that don't
know what he ought to preach about or
| i, aI,
| these things and hundred others like
them are funny; they are ridiculous; and
If one can only see that they are, it will
save him from getting provoked about
them. just think how much improved
some good preachers would be, If they
could have added to their already good
equipment an appreciation of the droll
side of existence. How the severe lines
In this good mans face would soften; how
his eyes would lose that intense, logged
| look; how much less nervous and more
wholesome and more loveable, and there
fore more powerful for good he would be,
If things were only funny to him occa-
| sionally. How much longer he could stay
in one parish, and how much more sorry
people would be to see him GO.
| All this being true, you will allow NE
to express my establishment that the sense
of humor should be so lightly esteemed
Where did this sense of humor come
/ u,
manufactured it. 1t is Unborn in our hui
man nature. Who put it there? God
And not in our human nature alone, but
in many other corners of the universe as
we'll. You may see it in the antics of
kittens, in the practical jokes of puppies
upon each other, in the skippings and
playings of all care-free and unconven-
tional creatures. To quote again the auto
GRAFT of the breakfast table, ''The ludi-
orous has it's place in the immense; it is
not human invention, but one O the
Divine ideas, illustrated in the practical
jokes of kittens and monkeys long before
Aristophanes or Shakespeare. - How
strange it Is that we always think of the
next world as such a solemn place, and
would think it almost sacrileeious to
picture people making jokes to each other
| In that better world, when it is exactly
| by the people who have no sense of fun ia
them who come so near making this world
| intolerable And how strange it is that
1t should never occur to US that GOD en-
| joys the ludicrous side Of things when
we know, if we stop to think, that if he
has no sense of humor he is destitute of
| that which as much as anything else
lends piquancy and charm to our human
life: II we do not carry our sense of fun
with us into the next world we shall GER
tainly have left behind us one of the best
parts Of ourselves.
No, humor like other traits of our hu-
| man nature comes not from any inferior
sense, but from the author of every good
| and perfect gift. 1t is given US to cheer
| us. to help us, to counterbalance some of
the evils that flesh is heir 50, to keep us
from getting altogether way-worn and
weather. beaten upon the journey of this
| our life. 1t was given us to use, not in
| coarse and vulgar ways, not in cutting
| retorts and repartes that sting as keenly
| as they glisten, but as gentlemen and
Christians should use allGods gifts unset.
tishly and nobly, to tighten the common
burden, to brighten the common path.
| way, to cheer, and encourage, and bless
| MEMORIAL DAY AT THE S. G. A
ROOMS.