Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1903-05-14
"PLEASURE And GOD"
Sunday Sermon by the Rev. A. b.
KinsOlving.
Shows That When the Soul Has Found Its
True Life the Simplest Things Will Serve
Then Mans Heart Laughs.

This is one Of those biting sentences OF
which st. PauPs letters are full. 1t occurs
in hurrying category and arrests our
thoughts at once.
These two things, religion and pleasure,
have always been here on Gods fair earth
They are undoubtedly primal constituents
of life, and yet it has ever been dlfhcult
for men to harmonize them and keep them
on friendly terms. Religious people nave
often committed the blunder of looking
askance at amusement. Indeed, some OF
the best and most earnest among them
have conceived of .pety, as scarcely less
than a kil-joy. They have represented
God as intensely jealous of life's innocent
as well as its forbidden pleasures, until
their systems have gotten to be SO one
sided, and extravagant, and over-wrought,
and one-ideaed and melancholy as to cast
an awful gloom upon communities for con,
siderable periods. Such men have missed
altogether the cosmic note OF ,gladness
which shimmers in the sunlight. dances IN
murmurs in the brooks and streams, when
smiles from the blue dome above and
thrills us in the spring bird notes and the
summer flowers. "The material for enjoy
ment." saws some one, "is so inwrought
into the worlds constitution that we can
not put spade into the ground anywhere
without turning it up. BY travel, by stay.
ing at home, by working, by resting. ny
strain of the muscles or strain of the mind;
bv speech by silence by solitude, by so
ciety; by helping, by being helped; ny 70
ceiving, by giving-by all these dltiereiA
roads do men reach Jov.
And vet with our eye upon the history
of mankind is there not abundant reason
for religions suspicion of the riot OF pleas
ure? What nation of antiquity has not
been slain by it's sensual pleasures! Kun
A. - g Rnh q.
dca, Persia, the Egyptian monarchy,
Greece, Carthage, Rome-did not the pas
sion for licentious pleasure and the eifcm.
macy which in consequence came every.
where in the place where manly virtue and
stole selfcontrol and splendid discipline OF
body and mind had been; did not these
undermine the mighty fabric of Rome it
self?
Look at the world that Christianity en-,
tered What made it so hostile to Christ
and His religion? What made it cruelty
Him out of its sight and fling His follow
ers to the beasts in the great amphltheatre
at Rome? Why, more than aught else the
unbridled love of sinful pleasures. With
fierce flashes of anger these heather liber'
ais refused to have their indulgcnccs inter
fered with. They would not suffer faith
to be taught in their midst which they
astutcly saw would have the moral etfect!
Of stopping their games, and so they cried
with hcllsh hate: "Thc Christians to the
lions" and to the lions they were thrown,
We know from the pages of Grote and
Gibbon something of the excuses of the
Greek and Roman national games and fes'
rivals. THAT which began with some show
! OF decency degenerated often into the cx'
IRENE of Righteousness and minlstered to
| the bascst passions. Frequently for days
and weeks together they absorbed the pub
/ lie mind, making men oblivious to every
/ moral obligation and deaf to the claims OF
! humanity" Gibbon says that Rome had
! at one time 5000 female dancers and as
many singers. and that when seasons OF
famine came. while all strangers and even
! professors of the liberal arts were ban.
J ishcd from the city, the dancers were al
| lowed to remain. Their performances
! were characterized by everything that was
morally degrading, and the orgies which
took place around the temples Of the God.
! dcss Flora and Noluptas, the Goddess OF
/ Pleasure, descended into the depths of
! prohigacy. In the times of Charles vi. OF
! France in the times of the Georges, the
Borgias and the later Louis of France there
| was only too much to remind men OF the
| blacklist moral chapters in past history
! Men lived in pleasure on the earth and
| were wanton; they nourlshcd their hearts
| in day of slaughter" No wonder, breth-
rem, with such spectaccs before Them that
/ serious Christian people. realizing the dead.
! " peril from this quarter, should in their
| moral earncstness often have gone too tar
and failed to recognize that the thirst for
! pleasure and amusement is n human thirst
/ and must be provided for and guided and
sympathized with. or else it will become
religions rival and antagonist.
Again, when men have tried to solve tine
mystery of laughter they have advanced
/ ,ylt hnf
! the passion for amusement was an Illus
! traton of the real unhappiness of most hui
| man lives. 1t is because they want to get
| out of themselves that they flock so to
spcctacles of every kind, or gather IN
crowds to laugh and talii--it is diversion
! ,.hey seek. that is, anything to escape from
| the somber ordeal of solitary thought
| Doubtless. his explanation fits many cases
but it hardly covers all. Play and joyous
man nature. The beginning of comradc
! ship between the mother and child Is the
! hour when. as she bangles some plavth!ng
| before it, ''the little, solemn face breaks
/ out into a dimpled smile" Humor is one
Of the closest bonds of sympathy between
u.s. The contagion of hearty, genial merri
ment is notorious, and the world has gen
/ orally rightly loved the people who made
| it laugh
Mr. James Suly. an Englshman Of let
ters, has Just published n book. which is
sort of phiioSophic study of laughter. in
which he depiores any wane of this great
human resource, and says that "it looks as
! if now only the more sordd material inter
ests moved the mind. as If snort had to
/ have its substantial bait in the shape OF
stakes, while comedy must angle for popu
larity with scenic spiendors which are seen
to cost money" However this may be, it
| hat tla ,Nlo ~.
stlnct is a true note OF our human nature
and that no life is whole without it. 1t is
! the lighter torch of this charming gayety
which gives that large freedom and mobil
ity to life which it needs for its complete
expression Amusement, relaxation and
happiness are certainly part of the cosmic
scheme. If at any period God should look
down upon His world and see only solemn
faces and hear no notes of rippling laugh
ter, | think it would grieve Him at His
heart. But here they are ever side. by
side; hfe's laughter and tears, and wher
! ever innocent. we can only imagine the
great and kind Father looking down being
nantly upon all, Nothing is more conspic
uous in the character of the Lord Jesus,
with all His intense moral earnestness
than the beautiful simplicity of His sym
| patty with what we may call the joyous
| background of life. He begins His won
der-working at marriage feast at Cana
to which He had been invited as a matter
of course The prodigal in his story comes
home to music and dancing. The kingdom
of heaven is itself hlie-not funeral-but
| feast. He was the enemy of every bur
den which CALLED the necks of men and de-
fraudcd them of their rightful happiness
Doubtless many an hour in the intervals
of work His soul was soothcd by the lyric
JOY of nature-by the gentle starlight, by
the song of birds, by those Syrian felds
carpetcd with unrivaled flowers, by the
choral glee of young children on the hill
sides and around their homes.
But, my brethren what, think you,
would the Christ have said to people who
had corar to rut picosnrc before God JIG
who sad MY meat is II do the VIII OF
Him that sent Ne and 10 finish His work
| III nnaiA ..'rhn Sn,, nf MIN rnnc moi L.