The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-05-27
4 SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
PLEASURE AND COD"

The Rev. A. B. Kinsolvina Shows That
When the Soul Has Found Its True
Life the Simplest Things VIII Serve
Then a Iau's Heart Laughs.
New YORK C1TY.-The Rev. DR.. A. B.
Kinsolving, n,ctor OF Christ Church.
Brooklyn, pret ched Sunday morning on
"Pleasure and God" His text was taken
from II Timothy iii: 4: Lovers OF pleasure
rather than lovers Of God" Mr.. kinsolv-
ing said:
This is one of those biting sentences OF
which St. Pauls letters are full. 1t occurs
in a hurrying category and arrests our
thoughts at once.
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 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 kill-joy. They have represented
God as intensely jealous of life's innocent
as we'll as it's forbidden pleasures, until
their systems have gotten to be 80 one
sided, and eXtravagant, and oVer'Wrougnt,
and one-ideaed and melancholy. as to cast
an awful gloom upon communities for con; on;
siderable periods. Such men have missed
which shimmers in the sunlight: dances IN
the laughing waters, which ripples and
mu1murs 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, sis so inwrought
into the worlds constitution that we can
not put a 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;
BY speech; by sileTce; by solitude, by So so
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 licentious pleasure and the eftem'
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 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 amphitheatre
at Rome? Why, more than aught else the
,,ab,;J1oJ 1o,o &c e;Df,,1 ,1oao,,rcc With
fierce flashes of anger these heathen hber-
ais refused to have their indulgences inter
fered with. They would not suffer a faith
to be taught in their midst which they
astuteiy saw would have the moral effect
of stopping their games, and SO they cried
with hellish hate: "The Christians to the
lions" and to the lions they were thrown.
We know from the pages of Grote and
Gibbon something of the excesses of the
Greek and Roman national games and 1es-
tivals. "That which began with some show
of decency degenerated often into the ex-
treme of licentiousness and ministered to
the basest 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
ished 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.
dess Flora and Voluptas, the Goddess Of
Pleasure, descended into the depths OF
proAigacy. In the times Of Charles vi. of
France, in the times of the Georges. the
Borgias and the later Louis of France there
blackest moral chapters in past history:
Men "lived in pleasure on the earth and
were wanton: they nourished their hearts
in dey of slaughter" No wonder, breth-
rem. with such spectacles before them, that
serious Christian people. realizing the dead.
" 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 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 tired to solve the
mystery 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 hui
man lives. 1t is because they want to get
out of themselves that they flock so to
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 comrade-
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
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 Englishman OF let
ters, has lust published book. which is 4
sort of phiosophic study of laughter. in
which he deplores any wane of this great
if now only the more sordid material inter
ests moved the mind. as if sport had to
have it's substantial bait in the shape of
stakes, while comedy must angle for popu-
larity with scenic snlendors which are seen
to cost money" However this may be, it
is perfectly certain that the pleasure in
stinct is true note of our human nature
and that no life is whole without it. It 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 ripnling laugh
ter, think it 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
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 svm-
Iathu ,yith ,,.hat NAV call the invnus