The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-05-14
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELoeu: MT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
"PLsAeURE AND COD"
The Rev. A. Il. Kinsolvins Shows That
When The Soul Has Found Its True
Life the Simplest Things Will Serve
Then 81 Mana fIeart Laughs


, Then Mans Heart LauShs.
New York CITY.-The Rev. DR.. A. B.
kinsoiving, rector ot Christ Church,
Brooklyn, preached Sunday morning on
Pleasure and God" His text was taken
from III Timothy iii: 1: Lovers OF pleasure
rather than lovers OF Cod" Mr.. kinsolv-
ing said:
This is one OF those biting sentences OF
which ST. Paui's 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 difficult
for men to harmonic them and keep them
on friendly terms. Religious peope have
often committed the blunder OF looking
askance at amusement. Indeed, some OF
have conceived of piety as scarcely less
than a kill-joy. They have represented
God as intensely jealous of life's innocent
as we'll as its forbidden pleasures, until
their systems have gotten to be 50 one
sided, and eXtravagant, and over-wrouSht,
and one-ideaed and melancholy as to cast
an awful g.ocm upon communities Tor con,
siderab.e periods. Such men have missed
altogether the cosmic note OF g.adness
which shimmers in the sunlight. dances IN
she laughing waters, which rlppies ana
nurmurs in the brooks and streams, which
smiles from the blue dome aOove and
thrills US in the spring bird notes and the
summer flowers. The material for ENJOY
ment," saws some one. lis 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: by
strain of the muscles or strain OF the mind;
by speech. by silence; by solitude, by So
cietv: by helping, by being helped: by re-
ceiving, by giving-by all these different
roads do men rHach lov."
And yet with our eye upon the history
OF mankind is there not abundant reason
for religions suspicion or the riot OF pleas
ure? What nation OF antiquity has not
been siain by its sensual pleasures! Kun
through the list of them-Babylon, Nc
dea, Persia. the Egyptian monarchy,
Greece. Carthage, Rome-did not the pas
sion for licentious pleasure and the etfcm-
macy which in consequence came every,
where in the place where manly virtue and
stole se.f-control and splendid discipline OF
body and mind had been; did not these
undermine the mighty fabric o. Rome 1t
self!
Look at the world that Christianity en-
tered. What made it so hostile to Christ
and His religion? What made it cruelty
Him oat of its sight and fling His follow
ers to the beasts in the great amphitheatrc
at Rome? Why, more than aught else the
unbr;d,ed love of sinful pleasures. With
fierce flashes of anger these heathen llber-
ais refused to have their indulgences inter
fered with. They would not suffer a faith
to be taught in their midst which they
OF stopping their games, and so they cried
with heliish hate: "The Christians 10 the
ions," and to the lions they were thrown,
We know from the pages of Grote and
Gib5on something of the excesses OF the
Greek and Roman national games and 1es-
tivals. That which began with some show
of decencv degenerated often into the eX-
treme OF RIGHTEOUSNESS and ministercd to
the basest passions. Frequently for days
and weeks together they absorbed the pub.
lie mind. making men obiivious 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 or
famine came. while all strangers and even
professors of the liberal arts were ban
ished from the city, the dancers were a.
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.
dess Flora and VoIuptas, the Goddess of
Pleasure. descended into the depths of
profiigacy. 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
b;ackest moral chapters in past history;
Men "lived in pleasure on the earth and
were wanton; they nourished their hearts
in day Of slaughter" No wonder, breth-
ren, with such spectac,cs before them, that
serious Christian people, realizing the dead
ly peril from this quarter. should in their
moral earnestness often have gone too far
and failed to recognize that the thirst for
pleasure and amusement is a human thirst.
and must be provided for and guided and
sympathized with. Or else it will become
religion rival and antagonist.
Again, when men have tried to solve the
mystery of laughter they have advanced
very diverse opinions. Pascal thought that
the passion for amusement was an Illus
tralion Of the real unhappiress o. most hu.
man lives. 1t is because they want to get
out of themselves that they flock so to
spectacies of every kind, or gather in
crowds to laugh and talk-it is diversion
they seek. that is, anything to escane from
the somber ordeal of solitary thought.
Doubtless. his explanation fits many cases,
but it hardy covers all. Play and JOYOUS
ness are among the primitive gifts Of hu-
man nature The beginning OF com-ade-
ship between the mother and child is the
hour when. as she bangles some playth;ng
before it, "the little, solemn face breaks
ont into dimpled smile Humor is one
OF the closest bonds OF sympathy between
us. 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 Sully. an Engiishman Of let
ters, has just published book. which is a
sort of phlosophic study of laughter. in
which he deplores any wane OF this great
human resource, and says that ''it looks as
il now only the more sordid material inter
ests moved the mind. as if sport had to
have its substantial bait in the shape of
stakes, while comedy must angie for popu
larity with scenic sD,endors which are seen
to cost money" However this may be, ii
is pcrf2ct.y certain that the pleasure in
stinct is true note OF our human nature
and that TO life is whole without it, 1t is
the lighter torch Of this charming gayety
which gives that large freedom and mobi|
ity to life which it needs for its complete
expression. Amusement, relaxation and