Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-09-11

lie. fOrlunately
for humanity there are few localities
now where such solemnity and NOR
bidness mark the coming of Sunday.
People have ceased to think that God
requires melancholy and gloom from
those who loved Him or that He de-
mands continual psalm singing on one
day of the week as evidence of a
devout mind.
Sunday For Recreation
AS our land grows in population and
the Trusts grow in monopoly of the
soil and its products the struggle of
the masses for a livelihood becomes
greater and harder and the hours of
leisure and pleasure fewer. There are
hundreds of thousands of moral. hard
working. God-loving human beings all
about us who have no hours for re-
creation or for life in the open air save
on Sundays.
Any religion which debars these
people from innocent recreations on
that one day of the week is an un-
wholesome religion and will never
open the gates of Paradise to it's pro-
moters or followers.
Lovers of golf and tennis find rest
for the mind and vitality for the body
In these harmless games. They send
the tired toiler back to his indoor
work on Monday morning with new
energy and a refreshed mentality.
Yet there are still few of the old
type of bigoted religionists who would
prevent the opening of golf or tennis
grounds on Sunday If they could.
They would have the Puritan SUM-
day of solemn silence and continual
church going and psalm singing re-
established. They would make it a sin
to be merry and laugh and sing any
thing but hymns on Sunday.
Looking Deeply Into Life
These. people have not looked deep
ly into life; they have not learned
that sunshine and fresh air and all
the gifts of Nature are an expression
of the God they worship: they have
not found out that health and vitality
and innocent pleasures and joyous
recreations are all agreeable to the
Great Father who watches over His
children just as they are agreeable
and gratifying to the human father,
who sees his children amusing them
selves in harmless ways and basking
in the beauties of Nature.
The people who play golf or tennis
or any outdoor game for the Joy of
the exercise and the pleasure and
are remembering the Sabbath Day
and keeping it holy.
It is a holy thing to he healthy and
happy and to rejoice in life and ac-
tion. 1t is far holier than to sit in a
sunless room and mourn over the sins
of the world and comment on the
faults of ones neighbor.
Alone With Thoughts All Ones Own
Every human being ought to sit
alone with his own thoughts a few
moments or an hour a day, and think
about God.
He ought to think about the Lords
of Karma who watch over human
lives, about the Invisible Helpers who
are near, about the dear ones who
have passed over the border to Spirit
Realms.
This should be done EVERY DAY,
not merely on Sunday.
But 1T can be done in the open
world, in the woods, or in the room
or in the church as one may choose.
It can even be done in the crowded
subway or surface cars by those who
have learned how, through concen-
Iration of thought, to find silence in
the midst of noise and seclusion in
throngs.
An hour, or a half hour, or a quar-
ter of an hour given EVERY day to
holy and peaceful and reverential
thoughts opens the doors of heaven
" uo idI lIlOlt Ntl ldlillN llidn keeping
Sabbath in the old-fashioned melan-
choly manner, and by stunning all
pleasure. all games, all amusements
for one day in the week.
Exery day should be a holy day.
but the one and only day in the week
when work-weary men and women
have freedom to enjoy the outer
world and invigorating games and
sports should not be spoiled by falSe
notions of what constitutes religion.
1t is sometimes easier to praise God
and love our fellow men while driving
golf ball in the open air than while
sitting through an interminable SER
mon based on worn-out dogmas which
misrepresent the glory and goodness
of our Omnipotent Creator.
This is one of the strongholds
which the Roman Catholic priests
have upon their people-they under
stand their need of such recreations
and encourage them in outdoor exer-
else on Sunday, so long as they are
faithful at service.