SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7602, 3 April 1886, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

RECREATIONS TRUE AND FALSE. [by the late REV. ©. JONKS HAMHB, WHO RECENTLY DIED AT rotorua.j The following is the final lecture of a series on Some Fallacies of Current Scepticism," recently delivered iu Melbourne by the talented minister whose sudden death caused such sorrow in this city. It will doubtless be perused with additional interest, as being one of the last public utterances of this gifted man. He took as his texts the following:—"And «he streets; of the city shall be fall of boys and girls playing in the streetu thereof." Zechariah viii., 5. "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven ... a time to laugh." Ecoleaiastes iii., 1 and 4. He said : —We have been considering great things these Sunday evenings past, subjects < f supreme and practical importance. I have sought with candour and with faithfulness to show the insufficiency of some arguments which men, whom I must suppose to be as earnestly interested as myself, allow to stand as a bar to the claims of Jesus Christ. Speaking on my own responsibility, I have sought frankly and as thoroughly as I could to deal with some few points of current debate. It may, perhaps, seem to some that in this closing address I am asking your attention to matters of less than supreme importance. But I trust to show you presently that we cannot either reasonably or safely evade difficulties which meet us on any plane; and more, that the all-embracing grasp of Chrint's redemption is its most triumphant witness. The man who imagines that his instincts for healthy recreation must be either ignored or destroyed, if he is to live a Christian life, is deluded by a dangerous untruth. The delivery of a lecture on such a subject as this involves a r<sk, to the hearer at all events, which one would gladly avoid. You will make an undue use of what is said if you permit yourself to regard what is urged on the one side or on the other, as either a prohibition or a permission which may take the place of individual conscience and judgment. Probably most pastors of a church have had the question put by honest-hearted young communicants, "May I—ought I—to do this or that?" And probably a categorical answer to such a question has been given very-hesitstingly, if it all. Yet it is manifestly a far simpler matter to advino in the case of a well-known individual inquirer, and when all the conditions are understood, than to offer timely help to unknown hearers. I feel it necessary to enter so much of a caveat, because my view of the whole case compels me to emerge from the apparently safe and comfortable position which some Christian people would take. Iu speaking on this subject, I prefer the word " recreation" to amusement." The latter may be no more than idle rest, the former is definite in its promise of renewal : it is like the " Lord's day" as an advance upon the "Sabbath," jnd it would afford an intelligible standard which might help our judgment in most cases. A demand for quickened conscience and enthusiasm of 'spiritual life as the surest guide to what is lawful and expedient, must be strenuously made in the case of the adoption of the attitude which it seems to me the Church should take, and for the achievement of the purpose at which, I would venture to think, we ought to aim. Now, there appear to be two somewhat different sets of considerations which claim our notice according as one or the other immediate purpose in Christian life presses with emphasis. If self- protection be our main idea, some things do not show themselves within range of vision which are not only visibly present, but well up toward the front, if our main thought be aggression, conquest, possession of the whole world of human life for Christ. Yet surely, if we look forward a little way, these diverse and crossing thoughts come together, and somehow plainly coalesce, as th • many sets of rails at some great station spring out of the through trunk lines, and, after spreading here and there in sundry complications, which yet are close and purposeful relations, converge again presently, and lose themselves in the main route from which they sprang. Take such cases as may occur by way of illustration. If it be that of a man seeking to determine how best he may keep his life strong and uncontaminated, the test-word "recreation," conscientiously applied, will afford him due means for safe and right determination. That cannot be a recreation which results in mental and moral and spiritual languor. Dissipation is the true name for that, and the man must deal faithfully and resolutely by himselfthe sooner the better. Even if the amusement be something in which he can detect no intrinsic wrong by an honest scrutiny ; even if it be something of which he is fond, into whioh he sees other men enter with zest, from which he sees other men issue without detriment, and possibly with profit—for him the result tells its own tale. The thing is poison to him, whatever it may be to others, and he must refuse it. Every man is not profited by a milder climate, pure as the air may unquestionably be, and entrancing to the sight as may be the land, and sea, and sky. Hand, and eye, and foot -ire precious, but, if these cause a man to stumble, thr-y must be sacrificed. Better is it to enter maimed into life than not to enter. There is no question at all about this. Yet surely the Master's words will bear a significant inference ; perhaps they were intended to bear it. It is better to lighten the ship by casting overboard valuable cargo (frustrating, so far, part of the purpose of the voyage), by cutting away and sending adrift masts and spars (maiming so the vessel herself), than to incur destruction in the storm. But better than this, and best of all, to come triumphantly into port, no item of precious cargo lost, the ship all perfect, gaining "an abundant entrance" into the desired haven, Better enter into life maimed than not to enter ; but surely better than this, and best of all, enter into life unmaimed, quick in every faculty, perfect in every power. Take the case, now, of those concerning whom our anxiety chit fly stirs, and who will come under the practical operation of tho convictions which may be shaped or affected by discussions such as the present. I mean, of course, the children of our Church and home, still retaining, for the present, the idea of protection, safety. We know that the circle of social acquaintance and that of Church relation arc not bounded by the same line. Even if Christian parents were more wisely careful in the matter of their children's choice of friends than they show themselves to be, it is not as far possible to-day as it was thirty years ago to exclude the " currencies" of the world. There are frontier places where diverse mintages pass in common exchange; and, besides this, it is almost impossible to guard against the penetrative power of current literature, let our will and our watch be ever so resolute. I am conscious that many of my brethren have a more lengthened experience than that to which I can lay claim, but my own eyes have seen this : that while girls whose homo-training has been strict, not to say severe, in bar and prohibition, do grow forth into a womanhood of earnest Christian activity and staunch holding of Free Church principles, the issue is not as happy in the case of boys rising into manhood. Still I am ready to acknowledge that that minister will have less anxiety and brighter hopes of a growing church life of vigorous, earnest co-operation who has a larger proportion of his people strict and even rigid than lax. "Keep away from the water and you won't be drowned," unless in any time of flood, by the way, the water should come to you. Bondage is easy safety. Freedom always has its risk and cost. I venture, however, to think that tho whole case is not exhausted between the rigid and the lax. Is it not possible that danger or disaster has attended some experiments in abating jealous prohibitions, because an intelligent conscientiousness has not been carried into these relaxations ? If a man yields to the stress of social influence, to fashion, to the clamorous idiotcy of the "world," and feels that this is a weaklypermitted parenthesis rather than an essential part of his life, is not the harm there, and not perhaps in the thing which he permits ? If a mac so yielding feels that he is outraging the public opinion of the Church, and would like to hide his billiardtable or his pack of cards from the common knowledge; if he speaks of the entertainment he gave in excusatory tones, is it not true that qui t'exctue i accrue ? And his children, unconscious of any wrong, unable to detect any wrong, come either to feel like criminals on the sly, or, worse still, if possible, that Christianity, as embodied in the Church or its minister, condemns, for, to them, no discoverable reason, that which has given them healiny pleasure, which has been to them a reoreation, and in which they can, see no shadow of evil. Laxity under such conditions bears sad fruit. But it is not fair to adduce suoh results as the

necessary consequences ot permitting or indulging in this or that form of amusement. In this, as in so many other cases, ifc is that which is "not seen," the spirit— the motive—which commands and shapes the real result. And we must remember that our anxiety surely is concerning our children's safety, not only while they are under our closer care, but afterwards, when they must take the reins of their life-energy into their own handß, or at all events when we oan hold them no longer, nor ever be near to check or advise. By what attitude with regard to amusements can they be sent forth most safely into the multitude of men and the tumult of life? My strong conviction is that wo should in all frankness teach them to distinguish between things that differ. They will understand that evil is evil, and that good is good. We need, then, set up no jealous bar against this or that recreation, or any amusement which is really such, and for all their life they will be capable of judging the wrong and right of things; also of the expediency of this or that, in a way which the most complete quasi Papal index" would never afford. Specific cases may be adduced—dancing. Some people think that, bereft of late hours, drink, and fashionable dress, the special charms of this amusement would be gone. If ho, the fact ought to stand confessed - that it is not the dancing that constitutes the attraction, but thoßO accessories, not one of which any Christian would approve. Late hours so spent afford no recreation. Indiscriminate companionships, indelicacy of dress, wastefulness in dress, never, under any circumstances, can be right. Brand the wrong as evil, claim your children's verdict, and it will be given without hesitation ; and then see, if you like, whether those things need intrude. They seem ridiculously nonessential. But. at all events, the matter is clear of all false issues, and you carry your children's judgment frankly and heartily along with your own. There are games which have been, and are, largely abused for purposes of gambling, and which have been eschewed or regardod as objectionable on that account. Gamblers are ready to turn every occasion into an opportunity for the exercise of their vice. The only essential for them seems to be an element of : uncertainty as to the result. Given this, and whether the matter in question be the next election or the next harvest, the trial of a ship or the progress of a war, the victory of a barrister, an athlete, or a racehorse, gamblers can exercise their mean and degrading craft in aDy conceivable case. To say that chess, or whist, or billiards is wrong, because betting and gambling have been connected by some men with the game, is scarcely a sensible conclusion. If a Christian man is inclined, or finds bin children inclined, toward a certain form of amusement or recreation, he will do wisely, especially in the case of his sons, to give it a place in his home if ho can, and so, letting the pare and happy associations of the family and the home gather about it, disconnect it for ever in the minds of his children from all evil practices and influences. With regard to such amusements as these, the wise man will distinguish between things that differ, and, if only for the purpose of protecting his children now and preparing them to resist the dangers of after life, will easily thus carry their sympathy and conviction. The theatre, with its strongly inveterate associations, in often unquestionably poisonous and corrupting. Taken as a whole to-day, it is no doubt a tremendous force; and, '.f anyone should declare that the force is overwhelmingly towards evil, I should hare no means by which to dispute the assertion. But the very fact of the existence of such a force makes me unsatisfied to leave the matter just there, and quit myself of duty by the utterance of a regret or an anathema. Is it true, beyond all doubt, that evil is essential to the theatre ? that acting as a profession, and dramatic spectacled organised as a standing institution, must be, what no doubt they have been, social and national danger ? Is history complete in its supply of instances and experiments for fair induction ? Has the theatre, distinguishing it from the drama, ever had a fair chance ? The very presence of this power to-day, to say nothing of former generations and other lands, shows surely that there is not only an ins-tine*, to act, but a desire to see dramatic pourtrayal, such pourtrayal being an aid to the understanding and realising of a conception, admittedly tho fruit of a genius which is a worthily-used Divine gift. Study does much, practice does much, special aptitudes have a place in furthering successful delineation. Such power of pourtrayal puts something worth the having within the reach of those who could not obtain it for themselves. Must this necessarily injure the man or woman who attempts the task, and the society in the midst of whioh such means are organised J. Is the case of musical performance essentially different! Mendelssohn's "Elijah" is, in the music of it, as well as in the libretto, a magnificent drama. The story is told in sound, and the great facts come with new, strange, thrilling power, presenting aspects peculiar to the music language which declares them. Must we all learn to read from soore, or satisfy ourselves with home performance, or bereave ourselves of what noble message Mendelssohn was the apostle to deliver Of course, if there be in it essentially and unavoidably "an offence," a stumbling-block, the recreation must go; but is an organised dramatic pourtrayal necessarily an evil ? I cannot think it is. There have been, and, perhaps, there are, dramatic representations, in seeing which not only a good heart would receive good and no slightest shock of wrong, but a wicked heart would be quite disappointed of a feast of evil, if that were sought. We must surely beware how we make in these, or any days, that hard duty harder, when a pure, ana worthy, and gifted man or woman deems it a " calling" to be a dramatist or to act. This leads me into the presence of that other set of considerations to which reference has been made. The principle of cautious self-protection and avoidance is not the whole or the highest part of Christian life and duty. The attitude of aggression is a true and necessary one, and aggressive Christianity has a voice and a work in this sphere of amusements and recreations. In the matter before us isolation is not security, and victory is the only safety. The demand— the righteous demand—for amusement and recreation will live as long as human life. It will concern itself with things with which evil has been permitted to associate itself— things whioh hold an intrinsic attraction apart from the evil which has bemired their name. Watch as we may, warn as we may, if we do not rescue such amusements from evil surroundings, the temptation they present will again and again overwhelm. Self-protection even constrains us to make the attempt. Disaster, which threatens the weak and helpless of oar kind, constrains us to make the attempt. Forms of recreation are not the outcome of chance ; they are a response to something which is part of us. If the people who organise the standing institutions receive no support from good people in any attempts to respond in worthy ways to the demand for amusement, they will be tempted to degrade their provision to a lower level. We must offer recreative substitutes for that which we condemn. A the Christian Church so willed it, these things, including, I believe, the theatre, could be redeemed and cleansed ; and how much our Christian work would be helped by the extermination of sources of corruption and the purifying of the public taste who can estimate. We have to win and conquer and possess the world for Christ, and not be content to say a thing is wrong without, at all events, an attempt to set it right. We desire that our children should not suffer as we have Buffered ; then we must strive to mike the path plainer and easier to their feet. It is neither Christian nor heroin to hand down difficulties without an endeavour to grapple with them. We are to take the lead in the world, and set the fashion. Much hac been done in the cause of temperance, and much may be done in this other sphere, if but, as Milton says, " this age have spirit and capacity enough to apprehend." 1 have just one or two things to say in closing. 1 know that there are many, and those not the least devout of Christians, to whom the very necessity for considering such subjects as have occupied us is almost a pain. They " know Whom they have believed." They have never felt unrest. No tiny cloud flecks the clear heaven of their faith. They can scarcely understand the beaetment by which others say they are assailed. There are many who remind us that this is a sceptical age, a scoffing age, an age of luxury and sin. They look back with sighs of regret at the vanished past, with what they understood to be its simpler manners, readier faith. But I am compelled to remind myself and them that the past they so much laud was certainly the seed-time of the present. And I am con-. fident of heart, when the harvest of these '

present days of intniii™~l — : —=» «andi d research comes* I toTe *S?7 and will be found of such full and .„r e , d in ' ik that no one will regret that Hi. n? d Wortl > went deep and the toil w aß sevefe U^" hat » jot quite so easy to befi^Jj l * be fathers received by tradition ! I . * °Qr 'that what we win we ho \K&F** belief is a more J"™ Jg.«d at Ot J is that a generation ago"th in, J I fact people did not occupy their Sf °* matters which we could no evX ** With we would. Many items of their ' e ' en « be said to have beeni ™th er not , Cre L ed *»y than actually realised in beHef t even conflict is healthier than U l th ' nk And though, when we ,o re t w a e a a r y t T ation wish that the strenuous fight Su! **' pause, we can always lay to hear? «. Maße or that whatever is destroyed, the t X"*"* conquer and abide. And i th h mDst beating through our being, with tn COmei, of new life, a rush of that rnnfi , r ' tlon « thusiasm, that majestic assure 04 ea ' sounded in the words, " Hwvei .«i Which shall pass away, but' My Words "J? ,? M «» pass away." "The Word of m "r »°* abideth for ever." I would also J? L ,° rd sentences seek to emphasise the V-£ which I touched at the outset of this IS o ** Principles are tested by extremes & .T' turn which is sufficient must be a sal* '*" to the uttermost. I question somS '° whether even Christians have £? fact that it is their whole self K " Saviour labours to redeem. T h -„Z, th ? men who treat the Lord Jesus Ph ■° Und they would treat some formal and 35 ?* guest. They admit Him to those 1 y their house of life which tKTS. tt worthy, but would never dream c- S r lug Him to enter every chamber T foundation to roof, and" be a "feT natural presence everywhere. Or i i y change the figure slightly, I have JS men who seem to imagine that their 111 ' be regulated by the Master's S n W eight, though they themselves are L 7" capable business and their wives £ capable mistresses, not to know that through all the economy of the house, and alHs details of commercial enterprise the",? fluence of the governing will must be felt Work and play are as necessary parts of „"' Ideas worship. The glory of y tffSif3 Jesus Christ is, that while there i 8 no narr even of the eublimest heights of being winch it does not overtop with the lustre of a promise and a hope, it gathers the whole I self within the gleam of its radiance and the impulse of its rule, accounting nothing common or unclean which God has cleansed accounting no faculty mean which God hu made, esteeming nothing too trivial to hava a part m the thought and grace of God You may gaze upon tho wonders of the far away heavens which the telescope revealsyou may turn to watch through the micro' scope perfection of beauty, which but for this aid no human eye could see. You can scarcelv say which evidence of power is more sublime. The greatness of the Gospel the glory of God in Jesus Christ, is its power of salvation unto the uttermost. Soon a Saviour makes His appeal to men, judgine them in true and righteous estimate, holding out to them the offer of a power which nothing can overthrow, a wisdom nothinz can baffle. He has been "despised and rejected of men." 1 beseech you despite Him not. He has been welcomed as a Savicur. Men have felt themselves new born. I beseech yon trust Him. " Now ii the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." No one can reach the close of an endeavour such as this of mine without a profound consciousness that much more might have been said, and that what has been said have been more vigorously enforced. The phases of scepticism are many. Such as I have sought to deal with may be traced perhaps to three principal sources. There is the scepticism of superstition, which seeks to imprison the powers and aspirations of the soul within a region all bounded by the faculties of bodily sense ; there is the scepticism of perplexity, which sits down in despair because it can find no adequate solution of the relation between physical phenomena and moral consciousness; and there is the scepticism of reaction, a hesitation to believe what is reasonable, because belief has been sometime claimed in what is unworthy of God and man. I find the only adequate answer to all questions in the teaching and the work of a personal Lord and Redeemer. In Jesus Christ millions to-d y are trusting with all their glad heart. Clinging to Him millions have closed their eyes, expectant of the vision of His face ; and to-day to us His sweet words sound for our accepting, " Como unto Me, and I will give you rest."