SOCIAL AMUSEMENTS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17221, 11 August 1921, Page 10

SOCIAL AMUSEMENTS.

CONTRASTING VIEWS. AUCKLAND CLERGYMEN IN DISAGREEMENT. "The Curse of the Card Table" was the title of an address given by the Rev. Joseph W. Kemp at the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle on Saturday evening, before a congregation of about 800 people. The preacher said he would ask concerning .the institution of the card table: Was it holy or was it profane? Was it clean or was it unclean ? The answer to these questions was not to be made upon partial grounds, but upon an honest study of its effects, immediate and remote. The card table had come to be regarded as almost essential to polite and cultured society. "Admission" into society" was_ a term almost synonymous with gaining entrance into some card club, whose favour was deemed the supreme attraction of social life. "We arraign the card table at the bar of reason and conscience as an institution of unenviable history and pernicious influence," said Mr Kemp. He I referred to five points upon which Professor Perry Sinks indicted the card table, namely, that it was a fact, a habit, a spell, an evil, and a vice. The habit of card playing when once it was formed grew into an absorbing passion and a craze. Its very nature was to absorb the interest and to engross the mind. A strong protest must be based on the chance element that entered into » game of cards; take the chance out o» it and the game must go. ; The card table was an insidious evil. T~t enthralled the life in impiety, it ministered to dissipation, and it was an attendant of degradation. It was allied with lieer and whiskv in the saloon, with thief in his hiding place with, the pirate on shipboard, and with the debauchee in the brothel. These were and always had been its native associations. It induced religious leanness and destroved spiritual usefulness Even Sabbath ohservance did not escape the desecration of the game. The card table had % deadening influence, and card players were almost impervious to Gospel appeals. ■■■. ..■'.•■■ - .. Speaking of the institution of the card table as a vice, the preacher said it was charged that dishonesty, tendencies to.take unjust advantages, and cheating were inseparable from iWft> haps many who played did so witjv the strictest integrity of intentions. Those, however who had no refined scruples against taking petty advantages found many ways of promoting their interests in ine gaV.e-the sly wink, the suggestive nod. the negation of the head, the accidental disclosure of the card, and so on. That cheating was an accompaniment of many or most of the games of Tards in which a-prae *aa a tion was freely conceded bv practically anvone who played the game. . Mr Kemp concluded with an appeal to the young people of his'confrreeation Key valued" their souls and their profession of. following Christ to leave the card table alone.

INTOLERANCE CONDEMNED. AIL DAYS OF PRAYER •Intolerance" was tihe subjecf.of a B emon delivered by.the «**• <J- H / Grant Cowen at.St. Matthew's Church next evening,■': the preacher-makmg reference to recent pulpit tions of social amusements, lhe text „ as John viii-, 7, ''He that js without sin amonc you, let him cast the stone. . to K said Mr Grant Cowen showed up in all Us fullness the power and spirit of Jesus and the intolerant SriWthe world. This .htolerant sS had been a curse to humanity, and ffcaused suffering and sorrow. I* had crucißed the"Son of.God, burned, nersecuted, and tortured the, .early clrisSui It had caused division m the cB of Christ it had produced war and industrial strife, and had prevented the healing, of differences that wISIo much Only when men wete Ohristlike and tolerant would Christendom become reunited. "We have heard much of late about the folly of social enjoyment-dancing, the theatre, and card playing. I thinK we want to keep before us a sane^ dea of life. God has made us social beings with a desire for social enjoy* 6 ™; Epiotetus, the slave philosopher, had said, 'lf a man is unhappy this must be his own fault, because God made aU men to bo happy.' fir in 'The Pleasures of Life,' said. There are many who seem to doubt whether it is right that we shoukTbe happy. "We have been placed in a beautiful world," proceeded the preacher. 'Every schoolboy needs recreation, and for the stern duties" of life complete re.axation in necessary for soul and body to remain healthy. God meant us to have.socia enjoyment a3 well as making spiritual progress. The man who .prays all day is sinning as much as/the man who never prays at all, for lhe should be dome practical things in 'a practical, everyday world. Abuse of anything makes it sinful. This applies not only to dancing, card-playing, and the theatre, and every other social enjoyment, but to other things. You- can make sin and wrong out of anything if it is abused. Because there is gambling over cricket and football, no sane man would abolish these sports. Many of tlhe truest Christian men and women are among those who enky those very things thaS lately have been condemned. The spirit of intolerance will never win the world to Christ. It is ..far better for the Church to enter into the social life of the community and help to keep it pure than merely to stand apart and denounce those things which, as social beings, men.and women demand." Proceeding, the preacher said they should try to make home-life lhappier, and give young people their social pleasures, under the supervision of the Church. Parading the streets was far more harmful for young people than dancing or attending the theatre or pictures. These, if .properly conducted, helped to build up character. The theatre and pictures, next to the Church and the home, could be -he greatest power for good.. Let the hurch develop a sane . constructive policy, realising that, as social spiritual beings, God wanted ue to go through, life with a song on oUr. lips and happiness in our hearts. One's pleasures could be dedicated to Him as well,as one's worship. ''l appeal," concluded tlhe preacher, "for a. wider, kinder spirit, the spirit of love for one another. Instead of the spirit of intolerance, let us develop the spirit of love, a love that thinks no ill of its neighbour, a love that ennobles and enables us to look out upon life and its many problems with the eyes of Christ, Who Himself Shared in its social enjoyments when He attended the marriage in Cana and performed His first miracle."