The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1903-05-15

Brooklyn, preached sunday morning on
Pleasure and God" His text was taken
rather than lovers Of God" Mr.. kinsolv-
ing said;
This is one OF those biting sentences OF
which ST. PauPs letters are full. Ii occurs
IN hurrying category and arrests our
thoughts at once.
These two things, religion and pleasure,
have always been here on Gods fair earth.
of life, and yet il has ever been difficult
for men 10 harmonic them and keep them
on friendly terms. Religious people have
often committed the blunder of looking
askance at amusement. Indeed, some OF
the best and most earnest among them
have conceived OF piety as scarcely less
than a kill-joy. They have represented
God as intensely jealous of liie's innocent
as well as its forbidden pleasures, until
their systems have gotten 10 be so one
sided, and extravagant, and oyer-wrought,
and one-ideaed and melancholy as TO cast
an awful gloom upon communities for con.
siderable periods. Such men have missed
altogether the cosmc note of gladness
which shlmmers in the sunlight. dances in
the laughing waters, which ripples and
murmurs in the brooks and streams, which
smiles from the blue dome above and
thrills US in the spring bird notes and the
summer flowers. THE material for enjoy
ment," says some one, lis so inwrought
into the worlds constitution that we can
not put a spade into the ground anywhere
without turning II up. BY travel. by stay
ing at home, by working, by resting. hy
strain OF the muscles or strain of the mind:
by speech. by silence; by solitude. by So
ciety; by helping, by being helped; by re-
ceiving. by giving-by all these different
roads do men reach jov.'
And yet 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 its sensual pleasures? Run
through the list of them-Babylon. Me
dea, Persia, the Egyptian monarchy,
Greece, Carthage, Rome-did not the pas
sion for hcentious pleasure and the effem-
macy which IN consequence came every.
where in the place where manly virtue and
stole self-control 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 1t so hostile to Christ
and His religion What made il cruelty
Him out of its sight and fling His follow
ers TO the beasts in the great amphtheatre
at Rome? Why, more than aught else the
unbridled love Of sinful pleasures. With
fierce flashes of anger these heather liber-
as refused to have their indulgences inter
fered with. They would not suffer faith
10 be taught IN their midst which they
astuteIy saw would have the moral effect
of stopping their games, and so they cried
with hellsh hate: "The Christians 10 the
lions and TO the lions they were thrown.
We know from the pages of Grote and
Glbbon something Of the eXcesses of the
Greek and Roman national games and ies-
tivals That which began with some show
OF decency degenerated often into the ex-
treme OF RIGHTEOUSNESS and mln.stered to
the basest passions Frequently for davs
and weeks together they absorbed the pub
nc mind making men oblivous 10 every
moral obligation and deaf to the claims OF
humanity" Gbbon saws 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
ished from the city, the dancers were al
were characterized by everything that was
morally degrading, and the orgies which
took place around the temples OF the God
dess Flora and Voluptas, the Goddess of
Pleasure, descended into the depths Of
profiigacv. In the times of Charles VI. OF
France, in the times of the Georges. the
Borglas and the later Louis of France there
was only too much TO remind men of the
hlackest moral chapters in past history
Men lived in pleasure on the earth and
were wanton: they nourlshed their hearts
in dgv of slaughter" No wonder. breth.
ren. with such spectacles before them. that
serious Christian people. realizing the dead.
Iy 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 mrst be provided for and guided and
svmDathized with. or else IL will become
religions rival and antagonist.
Again, when men have tired to solve the
mysterv of laughter they have advanced
very diverse opinions. Pascal thought that
the passion for amusement was an illus
tration OF the real unhappiness of most hu.
man lives. lt rs because they want 70 get
out of themselves that they flock so 10
spectaces of every kind. or gather in
crowds TO laugh and talk-it is diversion
they 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
ness are among the primitive gifts of hu-
man nature. The beginning OF comradc-
ship between the mother and child is the
hour when. as she bangles some plavthng
before IL. "the little. solemn face breaks
out into a dimDled smile" Humor is one
of the closest bonds of sympathy between
us. The oontagion OF hearty, genial merri-
ment il notorious. and the world has gen.
erally rightly loved the people who made
il laugh.
Mr. James Sullv. an Englishman Of let
ters, has lust published book which is a
sort of philosophic ssldy of laughter. in
which he deplores any wane of this great
human resource, and saws that "it looks as
If now only the more sordid material inter
ests moved the mind. as II sport had 10
have its substantial bait in the shape Of
stakes, while comedy must angle for popu
La a
10 cost money" However this NAV be. II
is perfectly certain that the pleasure in.
stinct is true note OF our human nature
and that no life is whole without it. II is
the lighter torch OF this charming gayety
which gives that large freedom and mobil-
itv to life which IL needs for it's complete
expression. Amusement, relaxation and
happiness are certainly part OF the cosmic
scheme. If AZ any period God should look
down upon His world and sec only solemn
faces and hear no notes of ripn'ing laugh
ter. / think il would grieve Him at His
heart. But here they are ever side by
side; life's laughter and tears. and wher.
ever innocent, we can only imagine the
great and kind Father looking down berig.
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 HE sym.
pathy with what we NAV call the JOYOUS
background Of life. he begins His won.
derworNng At a marriage feast az Cana.
to which He had been invited as matter
Of course The prodgal in his story comes
home 10 music and dancing. The Kingdom
Of heaven is itself like-not \ funeral-hut
feast He was the enemy Of every bur.
den which CALLED the necks Of nen and de.
frauded them OF their rightful happiness
Doubtless many an hour IN the intervals
Of work His soul was sOothed by the lyric
jov OF nature-by the gentle starlight. by