The Portland daily press., 1898-06-01
MADE MINISTERS LAUGH.

MADE MINISTER'S LAUGH.
A Visiting Pastor Whose Sense Of
HumOr Is Keen.
Interesting Session of the Congregations
| uergymen of Cumberland County--En'
| fertaining and Instructive Discussioh
| of Various Topics.
| The vestry of the handsome ne" d.
Lawrence church was the place OF meet
Ing selected by the Cumberland county
congregational Ministers ASSOCIATION.
Yesterday, and Iabout 30 gmembers ana
| enelr wlvesi were in attendance. AS Is
\ usual on such occasions, the day was
largely devoted to the presentation ana
oisoussfon of-various topics of special IN
'eres1 to church men, with sufficient
sprlnkling of sociability..to aidEthe diges-
ZION OF the facts and theories presented.
hev. b. N. Adams of Westbrook. pre-
sdued. The first paper was an admiral
one by Rev. DR.. W. 81. Fem, on "The
marrying of the Jews Mrs. L. W.
Merrill, wife OF Rev. DR.. Merrill of the
Christian Mirror, discoursed in an enter
tanning way on "Hpme Missionary Rem
iniscences. The next paper was an in
structive dissertation on the life, teach
1ngs ana writings of Rev. DR.. Philip
Schaff late of Union Seminary,
| Raw n Dott 81 ,xl,- r ha
concluding speaker of the forenoon. his
paper being entitled, "Some Stray Re-
m Arks on Sense OF Humor." His address
yTas little out of the ordinary line, and
it made most favorable impression, tho
audience being convinced that his sense
of huInor is well developed. He said:
| Under the phrase, 1.-THE sense Of humor'
I do not intend to draw the we'll known
distinction between humor on the one
| hand, and wit or any other species of fun
on the other. use the word humor to
include whatever Is in the ordinary sense
amusing. The sense OF humor then, as
l am speaking of it today, means the
| life.
We have somehow got inc the habit Of
| Sc parating religion from one of the most
| cheerful and, in it's own way, edifying
| traits OF human nature. Religion has al
| ways either frowned upon fun, or looked
down upon 1t patronizingly, as if it were
matter to be tolerated for the benefit Of
| the friYolous and the weak minded.
Has piety anything to do with wit?
| Can tonsecration- and humor dwell to-
gether? Or is there any fellowship be-
Ween devotion and the appreciation of the
fudicrous? Yea, verify, 1t is true that
religion makes her peace with one of the
most natural and ineradicable traits of
our common humanity. 1t is time that
she gave It's just due to faculty of the
human mind which she has hitherto only
1undervalued and abused.
do not maintain that sense OF humor
| is very great or wonderful thing;
don't pretend that it is Indispensable; I
do not claim that it should be ranked
with capacities OF the first order, such as
the capacity for serious feeling or earnest
thought. But l do claim that it is one
of the endowments of the well.rounded
and thoroughly equipped person; that he
who has 1t is prepared to get a great deal
J more out of life than he he who is with
out 1t, and that he who is without it is
without one of the good gifts which
| God meant him to have.
Or course man must have something
besides the sense Of humor. You are
willing to laugh at funny man, but If
he doesn't know anything except how to
be funny, you secretly despise him even
while you are laughing at him. To COM
mand respect, as well as to accomplish
anything, man must have the solid and
the vigorous qualities-intelligence,
| earnestness, principle. energy, character.
| But all this being gladly admitted, we
do not realize how much we owe to the
| sense of humor. hope / do not under
value any of the better and more essential
qualities. 1 certainly try not to, but for
my own part, do hereby depose and tes-
tify that. if l had my choice about it, 1
would rather be born wi thout an ear for
music, or an eye for color; I should
rather be physically blot on the land
scape, and be innocent of those intsllec-
| tual graoes which charm and enliyep.
than to be destitute Of the sense Of humor.
If a man cannot see the droll side Of
life, no one can help him, or show it to
him. 1t is ordained in the providence of
life, and that almost everything that
comes to US, even if it comes in the shape
Of calamity and disaster, should have
something funny about it. God puts this
ludicrous element into life, as the cook
sprinkles her salt and pepper into the din
ner. This droll side is here, of course,
only for those who can see it, and there
are certainly few men whose lives are
more monotonous, and who are more in a
mi Id way to be pitied, than the men to
whom nothing is funny.
| AS some people are born without a taste
for music, or for poetry, or with bias
toward stinginess or a tendency toward
consumption, so some people are born
without the sense Of humor. / remem-
Der meeting which attended in Boston
a year ago, at which an eminent man
spoke for IAN hour and "a quarter. A
learned, eloquent, earnest address he
gave; others Followed him through an in
terminable program, all of them learned.
eloquent, admirable, but all, slike the first
speaker. devoid of any ray or spark of
humor. listened with interest. but
with every added half-hour / felt the
cloud settling downsupon me. | besan.to
feel that was personally responsible for
most, If not all, OF the sins and sorrows
of the world. I felt oppressed, gloomy,
hopeless. There arose sman who was
neither learned nor eloquent, but who had
a soul to discern the pleasantries of
human existence and an utterance to rem
der them forth. and began to feel again
that life might be worth living.
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