Amus.e.m.e.nt: A Force in Christian Training.
by Rev. Marvin R. Vincent.
PREFACE.
These discourses are not presented as a series. With the exception of the last, which was prepared merely for publication, they were delivered at considerable intervals, and to meet certain aspects of the subject as they presented themselves. As they all develop substantially the same principles, they will probably contain some repet.i.tions. The interest awakened by the publication of the essay before the Albany Convention, and the very general desire expressed to see the second and third of these discourses in print, have decided the author against remoulding the whole into one treatise which he at one time contemplated. He therefore sends them forth in their original shape, with earnest prayer that the great Head of the church may use them, with all their imperfections, to awaken Christian thought and friendly discussion on a subject of vital importance to the welfare of our youth.
Marvin R. Vincent.
Troy, _Jan. 9th, 1867_.
RELIGION AND AMUs.e.m.e.nT.
An Essay, Delivered at the International Convention of Young Men"s Christian a.s.sociations,
Held In Albany, June 1, 1866.
The religious thought of the age must soon face this subject more fairly than it has yet done; and seek for some more satisfactory adjustment of it. At present its status is very indefinite. The church is by no means at one concerning it. The pulpit too often evades it. Private Christians waver between the results of independent thought and of early education, undecided whether to approve or condemn; while extremists take advantage of this hesitation to lay down the sternest dogmas, and to thunder denunciations at every head that will not bow to their _ipse dixit_. The questions at issue are not to be dismissed with a sneer at fanaticism and over-scrupulousness on the one hand, and with a protest against unwarrantable liberality on the other. The whole subject must be reexamined with reference to fundamental gospel principles by both parties, in a spirit of Christian moderation, and with the desire of ascertaining not only what is _safe_, but what is _right_.
To prosecute thoroughly such an examination within the limits a.s.signed me, is, of course, impossible. I can only deal with a few of the great principles underlying the case, and urge their application to a single practical question which has arisen in the experience of our own, and it may be, of other Christian a.s.sociations.
The idea of _development_, which is perhaps the fundamental one of Christianity, has been to a very great extent swallowed up in the idea of _safety_. It is not an uncommon error to regard Christianity almost exclusively in a defensive aspect; the Christian merely as a _safe_ man, protected by Divine safe-guards from temptation, rescued by Divine mercy from the terrors of death and judgment. Correspondingly with this mistake, the tendency has grown to strengthen the defenses of character, rather than to foster its growth. To keep it from temptation, rather than to teach it to overcome temptation. To teach it its danger from the world, rather than its duty to the world. Consequently we have heard more about keeping unspotted from the world, than of going into _all_ the world, and preaching the gospel to every creature. More about coming out and being separate, than of knowing the truth which shall make free. More of separating wheat from tares, than of leavening lumps.
The false instinct of self-preservation, which sent the Romanist into cloisters and convents, and tore him from the sweet sanct.i.ties of domestic life, has perpetuated itself more than some of us think in Protestant thought and church legislation. And in nothing has this tendency revealed itself more distinctly than in the matter of amus.e.m.e.nts. For amus.e.m.e.nt, having the effect to make men feel kindly toward the world, and, more readily than duty, falling in with human inclination, has been regarded as unsafe, and therefore as a thing to be kept at arm"s length by the church, and admitted to her folds only under the strictest surveillance, and in gyves and handcuffs.
The developments of this spirit are so familiar that I need not stop to enumerate them. The important thing now is to discover the right stand-point for discussion. And here let me say what, until recently, I had supposed there was no need of saying: that amus.e.m.e.nt is a necessity of man"s nature as truly as food, or drink, or sleep. Physiology, common sense, experience, philosophy, are all at one on this point. Man needs something besides change of employment. He needs something pursued with a view solely to _enjoyment_. Those who deny this are ignorant of the simplest fundamental laws of mind and matter. Men who a.s.sert publicly that they need no amus.e.m.e.nts, and "want to die in the harness," will have the opportunity of dying in the harness some years earlier than would be demanded in the ordinary course of nature. Nature will not suffer even zealous Christian men to violate this law with impunity. She forbids man to labor continuously, and if he persists in disregarding her prohibition, she will revenge herself by imbecility, uselessness, or death.
This must be a.s.sumed in all discussions of the subject; and it being a religious, no less than a physical truth, it throws into new prominence the question, how, as Christians, we are to discharge this duty without being led away by the temptation which adjoins it so closely.
Let it be borne in mind that we are not now dealing with individual cases of conscience, but with general laws. While then there is obviously a distinction between amus.e.m.e.nts-while it is granted that some develop greater capabilities of abuse than others, the attempt to adjust this question on the basis of _discriminating between amus.e.m.e.nts_ must result in failure. It always has, and it always will. This basis is secure only in a question between an innocent amus.e.m.e.nt, and one involving a palpable violation of the law of G.o.d. The advocate of any particular amus.e.m.e.nt is, on this ground, shut up to the necessity of proving that what he approves and practices is _absolutely pure, and incapable of perversion_. The moment it is admitted that it can, by any possibility, be turned to base uses, the lists are thrown open to all corners, and the utterly insoluble question arises, _just what degree of capacity for perversion ent.i.tles an amus.e.m.e.nt to approval or rejection?_ Insoluble, I say, because, not to speak of any other difficulty, one is obliged to confront the fact that no one amus.e.m.e.nt presents a similar temptation to abuse to all alike. That in which the slightest indulgence might tend to lead one man to ruinous excess, excites no interest in another. It might possibly be dangerous for one man to play at backgammon, while to another it would prove no amus.e.m.e.nt, but only a tedious method of killing time. On this ground, in short, it is utterly impossible to adjust this matter satisfactorily or consistently. The only consistent or safe rule in this view of the case, is _rigorously to exclude all_, because all are partakers of the universal taint of sin.
"The trail of the serpent is over them all."
It is innocent for boys to play marbles, but sinful to play dominoes.
Wherein, pray? They can learn to gamble with one as well as with the other. It is sinful to play billiards, but highly graceful and innocent to play croquet. But why? Really, when it comes to a comparison, the first is infinitely the more beautiful and intellectual game. The ethical distinctions are positively bewildering between b.a.l.l.s of ivory and b.a.l.l.s of wood; between mallets and cues; between green baize and green gra.s.s. A Christian household must not sit down and play at whist, but they are engaged in a Christian and laudable manner if they spend an evening over Dr. Busby, or Master Rodbury cards. Really, it is hard to draw the moral line between cards bearing aces and spades, and cards with the likenesses of Dr. Busby"s son and servant, Doll the dairymaid, and the like. When it comes to a question of profit, one is an amus.e.m.e.nt involving a good deal of healthy, mental exertion, while the other is about as silly and profitless a way of spending an evening as can well be imagined. Youth must not dance, but they may march to music in company, and go through calisthenic exercises, involving a good deal more motion than dancing. But if people may march to music and be guiltless, it is very hard to see how skipping to music converts the exercise into sin. It is said that the _a.s.sociations_ make the difference; but the advocate of this theory is shut up to proving that the a.s.sociations are inseparable from the amus.e.m.e.nts. And here is the place to remark that the best amus.e.m.e.nts are the ones most likely to be abused-the ones which experience shows _are_ most abused, and about which cl.u.s.ter the most evil a.s.sociations. The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. Men do not care to counterfeit a coin of inferior value; and the world is very clear-sighted to discern the best and richest sources of worldly pleasure, and utterly unscrupulous in appropriating them entirely to itself. The amus.e.m.e.nts which are most abused, are commonly those which, from their intrinsic value, call most loudly upon virtue to rescue them from their abuses.
The above method of reasoning, in short, will not stand the test of plain common sense. It is trifling, ignoring all distinctions which rest on principles, and subst.i.tuting fact.i.tious ones; and Christians who a.s.sume this ground, lay themselves open without defense to the logic and ridicule of any intelligent man of the world who may be disposed to test the reasons for their scrupulousness. They condemn themselves in those things which they allow. The amus.e.m.e.nts they approve cannot, in many cases, be compared with those which they deprecate, either in elegance, profit, or the amount of intelligence they require.
What point then shall we take for the consideration of this subject? We are confined to one-the stand-point of the Bible. As Christian a.s.sociations we have but one question to ask: "_What saith the Word_."
In the New Testament we find little said about the _degrees_ of sin. The thought which it throughout tries to impress is, that sin is everywhere; and under any form, or in any degree, is a horrible and fatal thing. The tares are gathered _in bundles_ and burned; no matter if one grows a little shorter, and another a little longer. The l.u.s.tful glance is placed in the same category with the licentious act. The angry thought is of the same piece with the act of murder. The gospel contemplates the sins of the race very much as a man looks at an orange: the rind is full of little protuberances, and a close scrutiny will show that some of these rise higher than others. But n.o.body pretends to notice these variations; they all spring from one spherical surface, and their variation is not such as to destroy the general effect of roundness. So all these fearful developments of sin spring from one plane, and G.o.d hath concluded the whole sinful world in unbelief.
The gospel, therefore, wastes no time in making distinctions between sins, but aims straight at remedying the great fact of _sin_ as it exists everywhere. Nor does it leave us in doubt as to its method. It a.s.sumes its own power to purify anything, and therefore lays down as its great law of operation, _the law of contact_.
This law it sets forth under a parable: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. The great truth here ill.u.s.trated, is the innate power of the gospel to pervade and a.s.similate to its own nature the whole worldly order of things, just as leaven thus pervades and a.s.similates the lifeless lumps of dough. This then, is its simple lesson: Put the gospel into contact with everything sinful-the heart of man, the life of man, the employments of man, the amus.e.m.e.nts of man-into society, its customs, laws, inst.i.tutions, and it will purge them of evil, and bring them into harmony with the Divine order.
But be sure and note, that the entire success of this action depends upon the contact-upon _the putting the leaven into the lump_. Fail in this, and the lump remains heavy. It matters very little whether the salt have lost his savor or not, if the meat remain in one dish and the salt in the other.
How thoroughly and beautifully this truth was carried out in the life and teachings of Christ, will appear to us more clearly, if we shall recognize the uniform policy of the gospel _to work for the destruction of evil, chiefly through the lodgment and development of good_. Both Christ and his apostles are exhibited in the gospel story as engaged chiefly in a.s.serting and ill.u.s.trating the truth, and not in combating error. Christ comes into a world lying in wickedness-besotted by it, plagued and tormented by it; full of abominations starting boldly out without pretense of concealment, from every phase of private, social and civil life. But he does not approach these as a mechanic would an old building, saying, "this beam is rotten and must come down; this roof is decayed and must be stripped off; this floor is unsafe and must be pulled up." He does not propose to his disciples to enter upon a wholesale denunciation of profanity and licentiousness. He points out and condemns many of these things it is true; but the main lever of his teaching is the a.s.sertion of the great gospel principles. For these he seeks a place of lodgment everywhere. The old tables of the law contained but one commandment that was not prohibitory. Every line portrayed a crime, with a law standing on guard beside it, and warning men away with its "Thou shalt not!" Christ a.s.serts the authority of the law; but in the new table it is seen beckoning toward the commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy G.o.d with all thy heart."
His instructions to his disciples do not so much concern the things which they are to avoid, as they tend to fix upon their minds right conceptions of his character and mission. So, I repeat, Christ"s work is less a crusade against evil, than an a.s.sertion of good by precept and example as the surest means in the end of removing evil. Look, too, at Paul at Athens, surrounded by heathen temples, statues and altars. He does not proceed to demonstrate to the curious mult.i.tude that the philosophies of Zeno or Epicurus are wrong; or that the worship of Hermes or Athene is absurd. He throws out at once, bold and stern as a mountain headland, the a.s.sertion of the Divine unity, and follows it up with the doctrines of salvation through Christ, the resurrection, and the final judgment. In a few bold strokes he delineates to the astonished skeptics some salient points of natural and revealed religion, and then leaves the truth to germinate and crowd out the evil in its own way and time.
There is indeed a sublimity in this invincible faith in the power of truth exhibited by the Son of Man. In the calmness with which he moves amid the moral ruin that encompa.s.ses him, without that anxious haste, and longing for immediate results, which characterize so many modern reformers. The world would have expected a direct and tremendous onslaught upon evil. It would have said that the dropping of a seed of positive truth here and there, would never result in anything. Christ knew better. He knew the latent power of truth; its inherent capability of growth; and he knew that wherever it should find a lodgment, it would grow; and wherever it should grow, it would shake down from its branches, like the mighty tree of the tropics, the germs of a thousand growths like itself. Now it is this very faith in the power of gospel truth, as the most effective destroyer of evil, prompting to put the good boldly into the evil to leaven it, which is sorely needed in the moral movements of the age. Bring the subject of amus.e.m.e.nts to this test. Compare the action of the church upon it, with the principles so evidently regulating Christ"s dealing with evil, and see whether it gains by the comparison. Is it not true, rather, that the Christian world has, to a very large extent, acted upon an entirely opposite principle? It has spent much time in peering into amus.e.m.e.nts to see what evil they contained, and has kept digging away at this, instead of putting Divine grace into them, in simple faith in G.o.d, and letting _that_ at once purge and regulate them. It has been so absorbed in ferreting out and declaiming against the evil, as to have forgotten measurably that a corresponding duty lay upon it to develop the good.
Overlooking, or at least slighting the great philosophical truth, that amus.e.m.e.nt is as necessary to man as bread, and fixing its gaze upon the fact that it is capable of perversion, it has most signally failed in the _regulation_ of popular amus.e.m.e.nts, and in teaching how to use, without abusing them. It has withdrawn utterly from many most innocent sources of pleasure; crying, "come out from among them;" they are not _safe_; Christians must have nothing to do with them. And with its withdrawal, the Devil has come in and taken full possession, and their last state is worse than the first. When the church has touched the subject of amus.e.m.e.nts, it has generally done so, I think, in a censorious spirit. It has selected certain amus.e.m.e.nts as sinful, and issued decretals and resolutions against them; it has prescribed penalties against church members who should engage in them; leaving the question in its broader relations untouched. It has fenced off this and that corner of the field of recreation, and put up signs: "_all church members are warned against trespa.s.sing on these grounds, under penalty of the law_," instead of trying to teach Christians how to avail themselves, with profit and safety, of any part of the field.
We are cut off from Hamlet, and Lear, and Oth.e.l.lo and Macbeth. We cannot avail ourselves of the interpretation of these by the best histrionic talent, because the theater has been suffered to fall so completely into the Devil"s hands, that a Christian cannot countenance what is good in it, without at the same time countenancing much that is profane, licentious and indecent. But if the intelligence and culture of a community endeavor to apply the principle I have been advocating, and, in the shape of private theatricals, to furnish a refined, beautiful, and instructive dramatic exhibition, the outcry is little less than if they had leased Wallack"s or Niblo"s, with a first cla.s.s troupe; and those Christians who witness it, are condemned as inconsistent and backsliders. Just so with dancing. The idea of Christianity having the remotest connection with this amus.e.m.e.nt has been scouted as absurd. A procrustean law has been enacted-"_Thou shalt not dance_." And surely, one would think from some exhibitions of this amus.e.m.e.nt, that Christian leaven _had_ been pretty thoroughly withdrawn from it. One cannot much wonder at the disgust excited by those importations from Paris brothels, the round dances, which, with the present style of female attire, really leave modest men at some loss what to do with their eyes. Let us have as much thundering at these as you will. Let us not mince words. Let ridicule, and sarcasm, and denunciation exhaust their armories, for these are abuses; positive evils.
But these abuses are not inseparable from the amus.e.m.e.nt, which, in proper forms, is healthy, graceful, innocent, and highly commendable. Just here an incident occurs to me which so forcibly ill.u.s.trates this last remark that I must relate it as the involuntary testimony of an enemy. An amiable and most excellent clergyman of this state, happened to be present one evening when some young ladies went through a quadrille. He looked on with great apparent pleasure. The next morning he was rallied by some of his townsmen on having countenanced dancing by his presence; when he roundly denied the charge, and a.s.serted that no dancing had taken place, but only, as he expressed it, "_a most beautiful exercise_." Now, I ask, in the name of common sense, why not devote a little Christian care to separating from its abuses, and regulating in its conduct an exercise which improves the bearing of our youth, tends to relieve their natural awkwardness in society, and gives them innocent exhilaration? But no! _Thou shalt not dance._ That is Alpha and Omega. Dancing is liable to abuse, and therefore, O most astoundingly consistent logic, leave it to become a prey to all manner of abuses and abominations. So, if a Christian household makes the attempt to leaven this unfortunate lump, and claims that it can, and does introduce graceful and modest dancing into its family gatherings and social reunions, it is too often denounced as an enemy of Christ and a corrupter of the young. For one I am glad that certain Christian families of high standing in the church of all denominations, have at last a.s.serted their right to act out their own convictions in this matter, and have demonstrated that even this much berated amus.e.m.e.nt may be elevated, refined, and made a source of social pleasure and profit by the infusion of Christian principle.
One more case in point. When our Young Men"s Christian a.s.sociation of Troy furnished their new rooms, they did so on the principle that prayer meetings and religious periodicals, though important in their place, would not, of themselves, suffice to attract young men from without. They had tried the experiment in their forlorn rooms under a machine shop, in an out-of-the-way place, furnished as a miniature chapel, and a very seedy one at that, and the result was that about six months ago the a.s.sociation was in a fair way to die, and make no sign. Young men would not go to that dismal hole to spend an evening when more attractive places abounded in the city; and I would not if I had been in their place. But the a.s.sociation got a new lease of life. It engaged large, airy, pleasant rooms, in a central position. It kept its prayer meeting room neatly and appropriately furnished, but it added a large social parlor, its walls adorned with pictures, a fine piano invitingly open, the best current periodicals, secular and religious, upon the tables, and games of checkers, chess, and dominoes distributed about the room. The young men came in crowds. They were thrown at once into contact with the Christian youth of every church in the city; with the city pastors; with committees, specially appointed by the churches to take strangers in charge, with good music, religious literature, and innocent amus.e.m.e.nt. For one I thanked G.o.d with all my heart. I thought the a.s.sociation had done a great Christian deed. I hailed it as a happy omen that the Christianity of our city was beginning to see that the Devil had tools which _it_ might use to advantage, and was going to take them away from him. But so did not think others who turned their backs on the a.s.sociation, and denounced it as _encouraging gambling_.
This, in short, is the course pursued to a very great extent with this whole subject of amus.e.m.e.nts: a.s.suming that the gospel has no business with it except to denounce and warn; taking the leaven away from the lump, instead of putting it in. Creating a wide separation between two things, which, of all others in the world need to be brought into contact-religion and pleasure.
And the practical results of this policy are before us. It may be said that the tendency now is altogether in the direction of excess; that some Christians are becoming much too liberal, and are fast obliterating all old landmarks. All I have to say to this is, that the more true it is, the better for my position. For, granting, for argument"s sake, all that is a.s.serted, this fact shows that there is a reaction from an old and false sentiment, which even if excessive, is a healthy indication. And the one error goes to prove the other; for excessive reactions are pretty sure to grow out of excessive stringency in another direction. At any rate, the great error of the church on this subject is clearly exposed, namely: her failure to regulate amus.e.m.e.nts. She ought to have been the gospel"s instrument in purifying them from abuse; but she has not been. She has been afraid of them; has stood aloof from them; has been almost totally absorbed in detecting their evil tendencies; and, on account of these, forbidding Christians all contact with them. And to-day she stands comparatively powerless in this matter. Church a.s.semblies meet and pa.s.s strong and elaborate resolutions on this or that amus.e.m.e.nt, condemning it, and those who engage in it; and a few persons are deterred by these. But every year the cla.s.s is increasing that utterly disregards these mandates.
It has been said, I know, that in proportion as the church or individuals are engaged in religious efforts, the desire for amus.e.m.e.nt declines, the implication being that a desire for amus.e.m.e.nt characterizes only a low state of religion. This deduction is entirely unwarranted, and the process by which it is reached is fallacious.
It is true that in a season of deep religious interest in a church, there will be less disposition to amus.e.m.e.nts. But the same is true of other than religious interests. Under _any_ absorbing, popular excitement, men do not turn to amus.e.m.e.nt. A special religious interest will draw men"s minds from _business_ as well as from pleasure; and the inference to the condemnation of business is just as legitimate as to that of amus.e.m.e.nt.
Again, the statement is not borne out in the ordinary religious life of individuals. Many, very many of the best, most efficient, and most steadily growing Christians in the church exhibit habitually a keen relish for amus.e.m.e.nts, and for some which are most sternly condemned, and partic.i.p.ate in them most heartily.
And once more: while at revival seasons in individual churches, a temporary decrease of amus.e.m.e.nts may be seen, the more important fact is that the aggregate of Christian society has been for many years past developing a steadily increasing interest in the subject, and a corresponding liberality of sentiment respecting it. Scores of Christian men have billiard tables in their houses. Colleges, from which in years past, students would have been summarily expelled for rolling ten pins, have now bowling alleys of their own. Even in the corridors of staid old Williams the sound of the b.a.l.l.s may be heard; and the revival record of the college does not indicate that even this stupendous innovation has wrought to the banishment of the Spirit of G.o.d. The a.s.sertors of this inverse ratio between piety and amus.e.m.e.nt must, in short, dispose as best they can, of the fact that along with the growth of Christian intelligence, Christian benevolence, and Christian activity, there has been developed in the church itself a growing sympathy with many of the very forms of amus.e.m.e.nt most condemned by the religious sentiment of an earlier age.
And this too, not on the part of the careless, and pleasure loving, and half-hearted members of churches, but of men and women high in position in the church; persons of liberal culture and unquestionable piety. These persons, as well qualified to understand the teachings of G.o.d"s word on this subject as any of the clergy, are a.s.serting their right to act out their own conscientious convictions in their amus.e.m.e.nts: claiming that they owe to the resolutions of synods, and conventions and conferences, no more than candid and respectful consideration, maintaining the privilege of adopting or rejecting them at pleasure; and accordingly they are throwing open their homes to certain banned amus.e.m.e.nts, very much to the enhancement of home attractions; very much to the detriment of the saloons; very much to the increase of their children"s attachment to home.
Church legislation on this subject has been a humiliating failure. It has not compa.s.sed its intent. Nay, more, it has over-reached itself. It has kept n.o.ble and intelligent youth out of the church by insisting on their relinquishment of certain amus.e.m.e.nts, in the proper and moderate use of which they were unable to see evil. It has tended by this insistence to foster that too common sentiment which paints religion with sombre hues, and couples it with the most forbidding a.s.sociations. It has tended to drive some to seek in the more liberal atmosphere of Unitarianism the liberty of conscience denied them by orthodoxy; and all this it might have avoided by a clearer recognition of the gospel teaching on this subject: by being less afraid for the purity of the truth, and by throwing Christian presence, and Christian partic.i.p.ation, and Christian sentiment boldly into the midst of the people"s amus.e.m.e.nts, with a view less to exscind than to regulate.
I say, "less afraid for the purity of the truth." For Christians shrink from an experiment so bold, especially after so large a proportion of amus.e.m.e.nts has been usurped by the Devil through their neglect to interfere. The church is shy of a faith in the power of good which comes eating and drinking; which sits at the table of publicans and sinners. The conviction grows on me that Christians have too little faith in the gospel. They do not trust it enough in popular reforms. They realize that evil is a tremendous power, alike to be feared, whether it wear the armor of Goliath, or sing its sweet seductions in the form of a siren; and their instinct of preservation extends beyond themselves to the truth itself.
They regard truth as a tender stripling, to be rolled up in m.u.f.flers, and suffered to walk out only in charge of certain staid nurses of theory; and not as a man of war in panoply, and with strength enough to take care not only of itself, but of them and their trusted theories too. They are afraid the evil will overwhelm or corrupt the truth; that the leaven, instead of imparting virtue, will be spoiled by the deadness of the lump.
We need have no such fear for it. All the developments of the age show that the world needs it in closer contact with its evil than it has ever been yet. It is sometimes urged that in pursuing this course, Christians will bring upon themselves from the world the charge of inconsistency, and moreover will grieve weak Christian brethren. But surely this principle may be pushed too far. With the very fullest recognition of the obligation upon Christians not to let their good be evil spoken of, and not to wrong the weak conscience-concessions made for the sake of Christian charity are surely not required to extend to all the vagaries of individual prejudice, nor to the abandonment of principle. And there is a principle involved in this question of amus.e.m.e.nts, a principle of far greater importance than many are willing to admit; and to which, if the Christian thought of this age do not take more pains to define it and act upon it, the eyes of the church will be most painfully opened by and by. There is a question here involving not only the enjoyments, but to a great extent the moral welfare of our youth. The young will have amus.e.m.e.nts, and the question is whether the devil or the church shall furnish them. Whether home, or the ball room, and drinking saloon, and gambling house shall be the more attractive. Whether Christians will resolutely take up good and n.o.ble amus.e.m.e.nts, and give them to youth purged of their evil,-or whether they shall let them remain girt with all their allurements, yet more widely separated from good, and gathering yearly to themselves new elements and a.s.sociations of evil. Very probably the world, and much of the church will a.s.sail the Christian who, in this view of the subject oversteps the line of received opinion, with a cry of inconsistency. But remember that the world judges the church out of its own mouth, independently of the real merits of the case; and requires that it be consistent, not with _their_ views, but with its own as publicly expressed. Yet sometimes it is better to be _right_ than even to be _consistent_; and if the church has with all sincerity, yet with mistaken zeal, fostered a false sentiment on any subject, do not Christians who discern the error owe to society the benefit of their clearer light? Have they a right to withhold it for fear society should turn on them and call them inconsistent? One would think from a sentiment like this that the gospel process was to be reversed.
That not the Christian is to leaven the world, but the world the Christian. Christian sentiment is not to wait for popular sentiment. It claims to be in advance of it. It is to Christians and not to the world that the promise is given, "_Ye shall know the truth_;" and Christian thought, so far from waiting for the movement of these ever shifting popular tides, is the luminary which G.o.d has set high in the darkness of this world"s sin to draw the tides in his appointed channels. The practical value of truth like that of money, consists in its circulation.
It is worth nothing h.o.a.rded up or used secretly. If it is ever to be worth anything in correcting false impressions which society may have formed of Christian teaching, it will be by letting it out into society to speak for itself. Nor am I begging the question at issue here. Even an error is better outspoken than cherished in secret. It comes into the field of discussion, and is turned over and examined and exposed, and so truth is the gainer after all. But I think it will be difficult to prove an error in this case. The gospel truth is "_put the leaven into the lump_;" and why the gospel should not be put into our amus.e.m.e.nts, even into those which are confessedly abused, I cannot see. The more liable to abuse they are, the more they need regulating; and the practical workings of this principle when men have the courage to face prejudice and carry it out, triumphantly vindicate it. The man who furnishes his son a billiard table in his own house, where he can practice that beautiful game with his friends without the adjuncts of liquor and rowdyism, does a good deed. He keeps the youth at home, he keeps his a.s.sociations under his own eye; he gives him a good, healthy, intellectual amus.e.m.e.nt purged of its abuses.
The college board that erects a bowling alley for the students; that says to young men, "rolling ten pins is not evil, but rolling ten pins in bar rooms, surrounded by drunkards and swearers and indecent pictures _is_ evil, and we therefore give you the amus.e.m.e.nt without these a.s.sociations, and bid you enjoy it, and draw health and strength from it,"-that college board I say, has promoted something more than _muscular_ Christianity. It has given the young men a better opinion of religion; has withdrawn them from the influence of temptations to which they expose themselves only because they cannot find the amus.e.m.e.nts freed from these vile a.s.sociations. It has drawn just so much patronage from the grog shop. The parents in whose family circle dancing in proper modes and with approved a.s.sociates and within reasonable hours is encouraged, are doing just so much to keep their daughters from the unhealthy hours, the immodest displays, and the indiscriminate a.s.sociations of the ball room. They deserve the thanks, not the reprobation of the church. They are the friends, not the enemies of religion. Let us not be scared by names. Let us not deal, as the pulpit has dealt too much, in vague generalities on this subject. Let us see what those terrible words "billiards" and "dancing," and others of a similar cast mean. Let us see if they are evil and evil only. Let us not a.s.sume that our youth are attracted to them only by their native depravity; but see if there be not some goodness, some beauty, some intellectual stimulus which renders them so fascinating. If they need regulating, surely Christian wisdom can regulate them if anything. If any can use them safely, it is Christians who are taught by Divine grace to use this world as not abusing it, and not those who are swayed by impulse and love of pleasure only. But the church does not regulate them, and she never will or can regulate them on the old theory of separation. Never, so long as she persists in wholesale denunciations which she can sustain neither by scripture nor by logic, and against which the common sense of the educated and thoughtful rebels. A more liberal policy in the past, a juster appreciation of the gospel teachings on this subject, would not only have done much towards separating amus.e.m.e.nts from their abuses, but would have saved her from her present humiliating att.i.tude as the declared enemy of many forms of amus.e.m.e.nt, from partic.i.p.ation in which she has no power to restrain her members.
This principle has been a.s.sailed on the ground that the world will abuse it. That they will read in words like these the church"s endors.e.m.e.nt and license for unlimited indulgence. But if the world draws unwarranted inferences to suit its own depraved wishes, surely that is no reason for suppressing the truth, but rather calls for the full and most careful statement of it. If the world read the gospel wrongly, and wrest it to its own destruction, those who set forth gospel principles are not responsible, unless, as has too often been the case with reference to this subject, the trumpet give an uncertain sound. And the world is too ready to pervert this truth, and does pervert it. Christians, if properly instructed, are so far from being disqualified to use amus.e.m.e.nts safely, the best qualified of all others to develop their highest uses, and to enjoy without abusing them. The world regards only the permission to enjoy, and ignores the corresponding rule of restraint. In this respect it is like the prince in the Arabian tale, who mounted the enchanted horse, and set him in motion without having informed himself as to the means of guiding or stopping him.
For, let me be clearly understood, I do not lay down this general principle without recognizing the existence of practical limitations to its action, though I a.s.sert that the fixing of these limitations belongs chiefly if not entirely to the individual Christian conscience. I have said that the tendency of religious teaching with reference to this and kindred subjects has been to make the idea of _safety_ more prominent than that of _development_. Yet I do not overlook, as was implied in the remarks of one who objected to my views, the defensive aspect of the gospel. I admit both the fact and its urgent necessity I could not do otherwise, knowing that the heart is deceitful, and remembering the prayer which Christ puts into every man"s mouth, "Lead us not into temptation." I am pleading for the restraints as well as for the privileges of the gospel in the matter of men"s amus.e.m.e.nts; for more and not less care and watchfulness to be brought to bear upon their future regulation.
But withal, I am not bound to abandon the general gospel principle of purging amus.e.m.e.nts by a closer contact of religion with them, because in certain cases this regulation becomes a matter of extreme difficulty and delicacy; because I cannot precisely say _how_ the gospel leaven is to be conveyed into certain forms of amus.e.m.e.nt. Just as consistently might I have refused to denounce slavery as a crime against G.o.d and humanity because I could not prescribe an effectual scheme for abolishing it. And that such difficulties do arise in the applications of this principle, I freely admit.
There, for example, is the theatre. I believe this principle applies to that as well as to any other amus.e.m.e.nt. For myself I wish that I could occasionally see Shakespeare interpreted by the best histrionic talent, with all adjuncts of scenery and costume. To me it would be a rich pleasure and a source of intellectual improvement. But as the theatre is now conducted and sustained, I am clearly of the opinion that no Christian ought to frequent it. He cannot do so without, I think, in the great majority of instances, committing himself to very much that is indecent and coa.r.s.e. And just how this difficulty is to be surmounted, how scholarly, Christian men who love such entertainments and are qualified to profit by them, are to be furnished with them freed from their abuses, I am not now prepared to say. I think it might be done; but the theatre, as it now is, is no place for a Christian.
This, however does not, as before observed, in the least invalidate the general principle. It is merely a question of means. Nor, as was very roundly a.s.serted, does the principle lead to this conclusion that every Christian man must have his box at theatre or opera. It by no means follows that such a course would produce the desired effect. It would be just about as pertinent to argue that because a sewer in a certain street needed cleansing, and because a proper array of men and buckets and brooms would cleanse it, therefore every man and woman on the streets, grave doctors of divinity, stately Mr. Dombey, Flora McFlimsey and Edmund Sparkler, should each shoulder broomstick or bucket, and plunge pell mell into the reeking filth. This argument proceeds upon the a.s.sumption that Christians can purge amus.e.m.e.nts only by using them in the forms and with the appliances attendant upon the world"s abuse of them. This is a.s.suming altogether too much. We must get religion into these things, but there are various ways of doing it. You cannot sow broadcast in all soils.
I do not know whether I ought notice one other line of reply to these remarks; but as it seems to be a favorite one, and moreover was adopted by some who I was surprised to see descending to it, I will add a few words on this.