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diff --git a/2603.txt b/2603.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f61c07 --- /dev/null +++ b/2603.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3595 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Questionable Amusements and Worthy +Substitutes, by J. M. Judy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes + +Author: J. M. Judy + +Commentator: George H. Trever + +Posting Date: December 22, 2008 [EBook #2603] +Release Date: April, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS AND WORTHY SUBSTITUTES + +By J. M. Judy + + + + Introduction by George H. Trever, Ph.D., D.D. The manuscript of + This book was not submitted to any publisher, but was put in its + present form by JENNINGS & PYE, for a friend of the author. + Address. Chicago: Western Methodist Book Concern, 1904. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +By George H. Trever, PH.D., D.D. + +Author of Comparative Theology, etc. + + +A BOOK on "Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes" is timely +to-day. Such a grouping of subject matter is in itself a commendation. +Possibly we have been saying "Don't" quite enough without offering the +positive substitute. The "expulsive power of a new affection" is, after +all, the mightiest agency in reform. "Thou shalt not" is quite easy to +say; but though the house be emptied, swept, and garnished, unless pure +angels hasten to occupy the vacated chambers, other spirits worse than +the first will soon rush in to befoul them again. + +The author of these papers, the Rev. J.M. Judy, writes out of a full, +warm heart. We know him to be a correct, able preacher of the gospel, +and an efficient fisher of men. Having thoroughly prepared himself for +his work by courses in Northwestern University and Garrett Biblical +Institute, by travel in the South and West of our own country, and by a +visitation of the Old World, he has served on the rugged frontier of his +Conference, and among foreign populations grappling successfully with +some of the most difficult problems in modern Church work. + +The following articles aroused much interest when delivered to his own +people, and must do good wherever read. In style they are clear and +vivid; in logical arrangement excellent; glow with sacred fervor, and +pulse with honest, eager conviction. We bespeak for them a wide reading, +and would especially commend them to the young people of our Epworth +Leagues. + +WHITEWATER, WIS., March 2, 1904. + + + + +PREFACE. + +"QUESTIONABLE Amusements and Worthy Substitutes" is a consideration of +the "so-called questionable amusements," and an outlook for those forms +of social, domestic, and personal practices which charm the life, secure +the present, and build for the future. To take away the bad is good; to +give the good is better; but to take away the bad and to give the good +in its stead is best of all. This we have tried to do, not in our own +strength, but with the conscious presence of the Spirit of God. + +The spiritual indifference of Christendom to-day as one meets with it +in all forms of Christian work has led us to send out this message. +"Questionable Amusements," form both a cause and a result of this +widespread indifference. An underlying cause of this indifference among +those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, is lack of conviction +for sin, want of positive faith in the fundamental truths of the +Scriptures, too little and superficial prayer, and lack of personal, +soul-saving work. Is the class-meeting becoming extinct? Is the +prayer-meeting lifeless? Is the revival spirit decaying? Is family +worship formal, or has it ceased? However some may answer these +questions, still we believe that the Church has a warm heart, and that +signs of her vigorous life are expressed in her tenacious hold for high +moral standards, and in her generous GIVING of money and of men. + +Our point of view has been that of the person, old or young, regardless +of sect, race, party, occupation, or circumstances, who has a life to +live, and who wants to make the most out of it for himself and for his +fellow-men, and who believes that he will find this life disclosed in +nature, in history, and in the Word of God. J.M.J. + +ORFORDVILLE, WIS., March, 1904. + + + +CONTENTS + + PART I. + QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS + + CHAPTER + I TOBACCO + II DRUNKENNESS + III GAMBLING, CARDS + IV DANCING + V THEATER-GOING + + PART II + WORTHY SUBSTITUTES + + VI BOOKS AND READING + VII SOCIAL RECREATION + VIII FRIENDSHIP + IX TRAVEL + X HOME AND THE HOME-MAKER + + + + +PART I. QUESTIONABLE AMUSEMENTS. + + "The excesses of our youth are drafts on our old age, + payable about one hundred years after date without + interest."--JOHN RUSKIN. + + + + +I. TOBACCO. + +Tobacco wastes the body. It is used for the nicotine that is in it. This +peculiar ingredient is a poisonous, oily, colorless liquid, and gives to +tobacco its odor. This odor and the flavor of tobacco are developed by +fermentation in the process of preparation for use. "Poison" is commonly +defined as "any substance that when taken into the system acts in +an injurious manner, tending to cause death or serious detriment +to health." And different poisons are defined as those which act +differently upon the human organism. For example, one class, such as +nicotine in tobacco, is defined as that which acts as a stimulant or +an irritant; while another class, such as opium, acts with a quieting, +soothing influence. But the fact is that poison does not act at all +upon the human system, but the human system acts upon the poison. In +one class of poisons, such as opium, the reason why the system does not +arouse itself and try to cast off the poison, is that the nerves become +paralyzed so that it can not. And in the case of nicotine in tobacco the +nerves are not thus paralyzed, so that they try in every way to cast off +the poison. Let the human body represent the house, and the sensitive +nerves and the delicate blood vessels the sleeping inmates of that +house. Let the Foe Opium come to invade that house and to destroy the +inmates, for every poison is a deadly Foe. At the first appearance of +this subtle Foe terror is struck into the heart of the inmates, so that +they fall back helpless, paralyzed with fear. When the Intruder Tobacco +comes, he comes boisterously, rattling the windows and jostling the +furniture, so that the inmates of the house set up a life-and-death +conflict against him. + +This is just what happens when tobacco is taken into the human system. +Every nerve cries out against it, and every effort is made to resist it. +You ask, Will one's body be healthier and live longer without tobacco +than with it? We answer, by asking, Will one's home be happier and more +prosperous without some deadly Foe continually invading it, or with such +a Foe? When the membranes and tissues of the body, with their host of +nerves and blood vessels, have to be fighting against some deadly poison +in connection with their ordinary work, will they not wear out sooner +than if they could be left to do their ordinary work quietly? To +illustrate: A particle of tobacco dust no sooner comes into contact with +the lining membrane of the nose, than violent sneezing is produced. +This is the effort of the besieged nerves and blood vessels to protect +themselves. A bit of tobacco taken into the mouth causes salivation +because the salivary glands recognize the enemy and yield an increased +flow of their precious fluid to wash him away. Taken into the stomach +unaccustomed to its presence, and it produces violent vomiting. The +whole lining membrane of that much-abused organ rebels against such an +Intruder, and tries to eject him. Tobacco dust and smoke taken into +the lungs at once excretes a mucous-like fluid in the mouth, throat, +windpipe, bronchial tubes, and in the lungs themselves. Excretions such +as this mean a violent wasting away of vitality and power. Taken in +large quantities into the stomach, tobacco not only causes an excretion +of mucus from the mouth, throat, and breathing organs, but it produces +an overtaxing of the liver; that is, this organ overworks in order to +counteract the presence of the poison. But one asks, If tobacco is so +injurious, why is it used with such apparent pleasure? A small quantity +of tobacco received into the system by smoking, chewing, or snuffing is +carried through the circulation to the skin, lungs, liver, kidneys, and +to all the organs of the body, by which it is moderately resisted. The +result is a gentle excitement of all these organs. They are in a state +of morbid activity. And as sensibility depends upon vital action of +the bodily organisms, there is necessarily produced a degree of +sense gratification or pleasure. The reason why these sensations are +pleasurable instead of painful is, in this state of moderate excitement +the circulation is materially increased without being materially +unbalanced. But as with every sense indulgence, when the craving for +increased doses becomes satisfied, when larger doses are taken the +circulation becomes unbalanced, vital resistance centers in one point, +congestion occurs, then the sensation becomes one of pain instead of one +of pleasure. This disturbance or excitement caused by tobacco is nothing +more nor less than disease. For it is abnormal action, and abnormal +action is fever, and fever is disease. It is state on good authority, +"that no one who smokes tobacco before the bodily powers are developed +ever makes a strong, vigorous man." Dr. H. Gibbons says: "Tobacco +impairs digestion, poisons the blood, depresses the vital powers, causes +the limbs to tremble, and weakens and otherwise disorders the heart." It +is conceded by the medical profession that tobacco causes cancer of the +tongue and lips, dimness of vision, deafness, dyspepsia, bronchitis, +consumption, heart palpitation, spinal weakness, chronic tonsillitis, +paralysis, impotency, apoplexy, and insanity. It is held by some men +that tobacco aids digestion. Dr. McAllister, of Utica, New York, says +that it "weakens the organs of Digestion and assimilation, and at length +plunges one into all the horrors of dyspepsia." + +*Tobacco dulls the mind.* It does this not only by wasting the body, +the physical basis of the mind, but it does it through habits of +intellectual idleness, which the user of tobacco naturally forms. +Whoever heard of a first-class loafer who did not e-a-t the weed or burn +it, or both? On the rail train recently we were compelled to ride for +an hour in the smoking-car, which Dr. Talmage has called "the nastiest +place in Christendom." In front of me sat a young man, drawing and +puffing away at a cigar, polluting the entire region about him. In the +short hour enough time was lost by that young man to have carefully read +ten pages of the best standard literature. All this we observed by +an occasional glance from the delightful volume in our own hands. The +ordinary user of tobacco has little taste for reading, little passion +for knowledge, and superficial habits of continued reasoning. His +leisure moments are absorbed in the sense-gratification of the weed. But +if as much attention had been given in acquiring the habit of reading as +had been given in learning the use of tobacco, the most valuable of all +habits would take the place of one of the most useless of all habits. +When we see a person trying to read with a cigar or a pipe in his mouth, +Knowing that nine-tenths of his real consciousness is given to his +smoking, and one-tenth to what he is reading, we are reminded of the +commercial traveler who "wanted to make the show of a library at home, +so he wrote to a book merchant in London, saying: 'Send me six feet of +theology, and about as much metaphysics, and near a yard of civil law in +old folio.'" Not a sentimentalist, a reformer, nor a crank, but Dr. James +Copeland says: "Tobacco weakens the nervous powers, favors a dreamy, +imaginative, and imbecile state of mind, produces indolence and +incapacity for manly or continuous exertion, and sinks its votary into +a state of careless inactivity and selfish enjoyment of vice." Professor +L. H. Gause writes: "The intellect becomes duller and duller, until at +last it is painful to make any intellectual effort, and we sink into a +sensuous or sensual animal. Any one who would retain a clear mind, sound +lungs, undisturbed heart, or healthy stomach, must not smoke or chew the +poisonous plant." It is commonly known that in a number of American and +foreign colleges, by actual testing, the non-user of tobacco is superior +in mental vigor and scholarship to the user of it. In view of this fact, +our Government will not allow the use of tobacco at West Point or +at Annapolis. And in the examinations in the naval academy a large +percentage of those who fail to pass, fail because of the evil effects +of smoking. + +Tobacco drains the pocketbook. "Will you please look through my mouth +and nose?" asked a young man once of a New York physician. The man of +medicine did so, and reported nothing there. "Strange! Look again. Why, +sir, I have blown ten thousand dollars--a great tobacco plantation and a +score of slaves--through that nose." The Partido cigar regularly retails +at from twenty-five to thirty cents each. An ordinary smoker will smoke +four cigars a day. Three hundred and sixty-five dollars a year, besides +his treating. A small fortune every ten years! A neighbor of ours on the +farm used to go to town in the spring and buy enough chewing tobacco +to last him until after harvest, and flour to last the family for two +weeks. Among all classes of people this useless drain of the pocketbook +is increasing. In our country last year more money was spent for tobacco +than was spent for foreign missions, for the Churches, and for public +education, all combined. Our tobacco bill in one year costs our Nation +more than our furniture and our boots and shoes; more than our flour and +our silk goods; one hundred and forty-five million dollars more than all +our printing and publishing; one hundred and thirty-five million dollars +more than the sawed lumber of the Nation. Each year France buys of us +twenty-nine million pounds of tobacco, Great Britain fifty millions, +and Germany sixty-nine million pounds, to say nothing of how much these +nations import from other countries. Never before has the use of tobacco +been so widespread as to-day. "The Turks and Persians are the greatest +smokers in the world. In India all classes and both sexes smoke; in +China the practice--perhaps there more ancient--is universal, and girls +from the age of eight or nine wear as an appendage to their dress a +small silken pocket to hold tobacco and a pipe." Nor can the expense and +widespread use of tobacco be defended on the ground that it is a luxury, +for the abstainer from tobacco counts it the greater luxury not to use +it. The only explanation for its use is, that it is a habit which binds +one hand and foot, and from which no person with ordinary will power in +his own strength can free himself. + +Tobacco blunts the moral nature. It is not certain how long tobacco +has been used as a narcotic. Some authorities hold that the smoking of +tobacco was an ancient custom among the Chinese. But if this is true, we +know that it did not spread among the neighboring nations. When Columbus +came to America he found the natives of the West Indies and the American +Indian smoking the weed. With the Indian its use has always had a +religious and legal significance. Early in the sixteenth century tobacco +was introduced into England, later into Spain, and still later, in 1560, +into Italy. Used for its medicinal properties at first, soon it came +to be used as a luxury. The popes of Italy saw its harm and thundered +against it. The priests and sultans of Turkey declared smoking a crime. +One sultan made it punishable with death. The pipes of smokers were +thrust through their noses in Turkey, and in Russia the noses of smokers +were cut off in the earlier part of the seventeenth century. "King James +I of England issued a counterblast to tobacco, in which he described its +use as a 'custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful +to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fumes +thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is +bottomless.'" As one contrasts this sentiment with the practice of the +present sovereign of England, his breath is almost taken away in his +great fall from the sublime to the ridiculous! + +While we do not believe a moderate use of tobacco for a mature person is +necessarily a sin, yet we do believe that it does blunt the moral sense, +and soon leads to spiritual weakness and indifference, which are sins. +To love God with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength, and +one's neighbor as himself, means not only a denial of that which is +questionable in morals, but a practice of that which is positively good. +However noble or worthy in character may be some who use tobacco, yet by +common consent it is a "tool of the devil." Every den of gamblers, +every low-down grogshop, every smoking-car, every public resort and +waiting-room departments for men, every rendezvous of rogues, loafers, +villains, and tramps is thoroughly saturated with the vile stench of the +cuspidor and the poisonous odors of the pipe and cigar. "Rev. Dr. Cox +abandoned tobacco after a drunken loafer asked him for a light." Not +until then had he seen and felt the disreputable fraternity that existed +between the users of tobacco. + +Owen Meredith gives us a standard of strength and freedom, which is an +inspiration to every lover of rounded, perfected manhood and womanhood: + + "Strong is that man, he only strong, + To whose well-ordered will belong, + For service and delight, + All powers that in the face of wrong + Establish right. + + And free is he, and only he, + Who, from his tyrant passions free, + By fortune undismayed, + Has power within himself to be, + By self obeyed. + + If such a man there be, where'er + Beneath the sun and moon he fare, + He can not fare amiss; + Great nature hath him in her care. + Her cause is his." + +Only let the "will," the "powers," the "freedom," and the "self" of +which the writer speaks become the "Christ will," the "Christ powers," +the "Christ freedom," and the "Christ self." Then the strongest chains +of bondage must fly into flinters. For "if the Son make you free, ye are +free indeed." (John viii, 36.) + + + + +II. DRUNKENNESS. + + +I. A TEMPERANCE PLATFORM. + + +WE bring to you three words of counsel with respect to this subject. +First, Beware of the Social Glass; second, Study the Drink Evil; third, +Openly oppose it. This is a Temperance Platform upon which every sober, +informed, and conscientious person may stand. Would it be narrow or +uncharitable to assert that not to stand upon this platform argues that +one is not sober, or not informed, or not conscientious? The crying +need of to-day is, that men and women shall be urged into positions of +conviction and activity against this most colossal evil of our time. +In our country the responsibility for drunkenness rests not with the +illiterate, blasphemous, ex-prison convicts who operate the 250,000 +saloons of our Nation, nor yet with the 250,000 finished products of +the saloon who go down into drunkards' graves every year, but with the +sober, respectable, hard-working, voting citizens of our country. +Nor does this exempt women, whose opportunity to shape the moral and +political convictions of the home is far greater than that of the men. +When the women of America say to the saloon, You go! the saloon will +have to go. The moral and political measures of any people are easily +traceable to the sisters and wives and mothers of that people. You and I +and every ordinary citizen of our country had as well try to escape our +own shadow, as to try to escape the responsibility that rests upon us +for the drunkenness of our people. To help us to do our whole duty in +our day and generation in this matter is the purpose of our message. + +II. BEWARE OF THE SOCIAL GLASS. + +The first and least thing that one can do to destroy drunkenness, is +to be a total abstainer. Beware of the social glass! But quickly one +replies, "Why should there be any social glass?" "Why allow sparkling, +attractive springs of refreshing poison to issue forth in all of our +social centers, and then cry to our sons and daughters, to our brothers +and sisters, Beware?" My friend, we must deal with facts as they are. +There should not be a social glass; but what has that to do with +the fact that the social glass is here? You answer, "Why allow these +fountains of death to exist?" while we cry to our loved ones, "Beware!" +We do not advocate the presence of these fountains; but while we seek +to destroy them beseechingly we cry, "Beware!" The social factor in the +liquor traffic is its Gibraltar of defense. Rare is the young man who +has the intellectual stamina and moral courage to resist the invitations +to take a social drink. And in our frontier and foreign towns many of +our bright and respected girls use the social glass. But in its use is +the beginning of a fateful end. The subtlest thing in this world is sin. +Listen! + + "Sin is a monster of so frightful mien; + To be hated needs but to be seen; + But seen too oft, familiar with the face, + We first endure, then pity, then embrace." + +The subtle thing about it is, that the first embracing of any sin seems +to be but a trifling, an occasional affair. For one who lives in an +ordinary city of a thousand inhabitants or upwards, unless he is an +"out-and-out" Christian and selects only associates like himself, it +becomes a real Embarrassment not to indulge in a social drink. It seems +polite, clever, the kindly thing to do. And the sad fact is, that the +majority of unchristian young people and many older ones do not decline. +To prove this we have but to look at the human wrecks along the shore. +Two young men lived near our home. Their parents were well-to-do. The +family grew tired of the farm and moved to town. The boys fell in with +bad company. They did not decline the social glass. Soon they furnished +other young men with drink from their own pocket. This was fifteen years +ago. To-day one of them is a hardened sinner, violent in his passions +and blasphemous against God. The other one, having spent a term in our +Illinois State University at Champaign, married a beautiful neighbor +girl and moved to Missouri. Here he lived off the money of his father's +estate, practicing his early-learned habits of drinking, gambling, and +loafing. He moved from State to State until, finally left in poverty, +he tended bar in a saloon. While visiting with relatives in his old +neighborhood a few years ago he stole a watch and some money from +his own nephew, and was tried in the courts, and sentenced to the +penitentiary for one year. His wife, having carried the burden of +disgrace and want through all these years, with the seven unfortunate +children were released from him to struggle alone. All this we have seen +with our own eyes as the years have come and gone. The downfall and ruin +of this young man, and the unsaved fate of his brother, easily may be +traceable to the "social glass" and the boon companions of the social +glass--tobacco and playing-cards. Last year I met a man who had prided +himself in the fact that he could drink or let it alone, and thought +that it was all right to take a "social glass" occasionally. Election +time came around; he fell in with his friends, and, as one always will +do sooner or later who tampers with it at all, went too far. Before he +knew it he was as low in the gutter as a beast. It was three days before +he was a sober man again. He work had ceased, he had disgusted his +fellow-workmen, disgraced his Christian family, and had humiliated +himself so that he was ashamed to look any man in the face until he had +repented of his sins before God, and had promised Him, by His help, that +he would never drink another glass. What a pleasure it was to hear that +old man, as he is close to sixty years of age, to hear him tell in a +spirited religious service of how he had strayed from his path and had +got lost in the woods, but thanked God that he was out of the woods, and +by His help would remain out. When we become undone in Christ He lifts +us up and starts us on our new way rejoicing in His love. If Christ +Himself were here in body, do you know what He would advise on this +point? He would say: "As it is written;" "Look not thou upon the wine +when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it goeth down +smoothly: at the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an +adder." Beware of the social glass, my friend, for though it promises +pleasure, it gives but pain; it promises joy, it gives but sorrow; it +promises deliverance, it gives but eternal death! + +III. STUDY THE DRINK EVIL. + +We hear it said, "No use to picture the horrors of the drink evil; every +one knows them already." In part, this is true. All of us know more than +we wish it were possible to be true; and yet no one can ever realize +its horrors until caught, and torn, and mangled in its pinching, jagged, +griping meshes. It is one thing to know by a distant glance, it is +another thing to know by the pangs of a broken heart and of a wrecked +life. For those who are not thus caught in its meshes to realize its +horrors so as to seek its destruction but one course is possible; +namely, To study the evil. Let the teacher tell of its ravages; let the +minister proclaim its curses; let the poet sing it; the painter paint +it; the editor report it; the novelist portray it; the scientist +describe it; the philosopher decry it; the sisters and wives and mothers +denounce it--until all shall unite in smiting it to its death! + +We should study the drink evil in its relation to disease. That strong +drink tends to produce disease is no longer questioned. "During the +cholera in New York City in 1832, of two hundred and four cases in the +Park Hospital only six were temperate, and all of these recovered; while +one hundred and twenty-two of the others died. In Great Britain in the +same year five-sixths of all who perished were intemperate. In one +or two villages every drunkard died, while not a single member of a +temperance society lost his life." "In Paisley, England, in 1848, there +were three hundred and thirty-seven cases of cholera, and every case +except one was a dram-drinker. The cases of cholera were one for every +one hundred and eighty-one inhabitants; but among the temperate portion +there was only one case to each two thousand." "Of three hundred and +eighty-six persons connected with the total abstinence societies only +one died, and he was a reformed drunkard" of three months' standing. "In +New Orleans during the last epidemic the order of the Sons of Temperance +appointed a committee to ascertain the number of deaths from cholera +among their members. It was found that there were twelve hundred and +forty-three members in the city and suburbs, and among these only three +deaths had occurred, being only one-sixth the average death-rate." "In +New York, in 1832, only two out of five thousand members of temperance +societies died." The Northwestern Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, +Wisconsin, one of the oldest and most successful Companies in the +Northwest, has lived for nearly forty years next neighbor to lager beer +interests. The shrewd men of this company have studied the influence of +the beer industry upon those who engage in it. The result is, that they +will no longer grant an insurance policy to a beer-brewer, nor to any +one in any way engaged in the business. In their own words their reason +is this: "Our statistics show that our business has been injured by the +short lives of those men who drink lager beer." + +Then, we need to study the drink evil in its relation to society. "A +recent report of the chaplain of the Madalen Society of New York shows +that of eight-nine fallen women in the asylum at one time, all but +two ascribed their fall to the effect of the drink habit." "A lady +missionary makes the statement that of two thousand sinful women known +personally to her, there were only ten cases in which intoxicating +liquors were not largely responsible for their fall." "A leading worker +for reform in New York says that the suppression of the curse of strong +drink would include the destruction of ninety-nine of every one hundred +of the houses of ill-fame." "A missionary on going at the written +request of one of these lost women to rescue her from a den of infamy +remonstrated with her for being even then slightly under the influence +of drink." "Why," was her indignant reply as tears filled her eyes, +"do you suppose we girls are so dead that we have lost our memories of +mother, home, and everything good? No, indeed; and if it were not for +liquor and opium, we would all have to run away from our present life or +go mad by pleadings of our own hearts and home memories." + +Only by a study of the drink evil shall we know its ravages in the home. +Those of us who have lived in the pure air of free, country home-life +can not easily realize the moral plague of drunkenness as it blights the +home in the crowded districts of city slum life. Nor is the home of the +city alone cursed by the drink evil. Three years ago this last holiday +season we were doing some evangelistic work in a neighboring town, a +mere village of a couple hundred inhabitants. I shall never forget +how the mother of a dejected home cried and pleaded for help from the +ravages of her drunken husband. She said that he had spent all of his +wages, and had made no provision for the home, in furniture, in books +for the children, nor in clothing for them nor for her. She had come +almost to despair, and was blaming God for allowing her little ones to +suffer because of a worthless man. O, the world is full of this sort of +thing to-day, if we only knew the sighs and heartaches and blasted hopes +of those who suffer! In a smoking-car one day a commercial traveler +refused to drink with his old comrades, by saying: "No, I won't drink +with you to-day, boys. The fact is, boys, I have sworn off." He was +taunted and laughed at, and urged to tell what had happened to him. They +said: "If you've quit drinking, something's up; tell us what it is." +"Well, boys," he said, "I will, though I know you will laugh at me; but +I will tell you all the same. I have been a drinking man all my life, +and have kept it up since I was married, as you all know. I love whisky; +it's as sweet in my mouth as sugar, and God only knows how I'll quit it. +For seven years not a day has passed over my head that I didn't have +at least one drink. But I am done. Yesterday I was in Chicago. Down on +South Clark Street a customer of mine keeps a pawnshop in connection +with his business. I called on him, and while I was there a young man of +not more than twenty-five, wearing thread-bare clothes, and looking +as hard as if he had not seen a sober day for a month, came in with a +little package in his hand. Tremblingly he unwrapped it, and handed the +articles to the pawnbroker, saying, 'Give me ten cents.' And, boys, what +do you suppose that package was? A pair of baby's shoes; little things +with the buttons only a trifle soiled, as if they had been worn once +or twice. 'Where did you get them?' asked the pawnbroker. 'Got 'em at +home,' replied the man, who had an intelligent face and the manner of a +gentleman, despite his sad condition. 'My wife bought 'em for our baby. +Give me ten cents for 'em. I want a drink.' 'You had better take those +back to your wife; the baby will need them,' said the pawnbroker. 'No, +she won't..She's lying at home now; she died last night.' As he said +this the poor fellow broke down, bowed his head on the showcase, and +cried like a child. 'Boys,' said the drummer, 'you can laugh if you want +to, but I have a baby of my own at home, and by the help of God I'll +never drink another drop.'" The man went into another car, the bottle +had disappeared, and the boys pretended to read some papers that lay +scattered about the car. Ah, this is only one out of hundreds of such +scenes that are being enacted every day in our saloon-cursed cities. + +We should study the drink evil to see how it makes people poor and keeps +them poor. A story is told of a drinking man who related to his family +a dream that he had had the night before. He dreamed that he saw three +cats, a fat one, a lean one, and a blind one; and he was anxious to +know what it meant that he should have such a strange dream. Quickly +his little boy answered, "I can tell what it means. The fat cat is the +saloon-keeper who sells you drink, the lean cat is mother and me, and +the blind cat is yourself." "In one of our large cities," one day, "a +laboring man, leaving a saloon, saw a costly carriage and pair of horses +standing in front, occupied by two ladies elegantly dressed, conversing +with the proprietor. 'Whose establishment is that?' he said to the +saloon-keeper, as the carriage rolled away. 'It is mine,' replied the +dealer, proudly. 'It cost thirty-five hundred dollars. My wife and +daughter couldn't do without that.' The mechanic bowed his head a +moment in deep thought; then, looking up, said with the energy of a man +suddenly aroused by some startling flash, 'I see it!' 'I see it!' 'See +what?' asked the saloonkeeper. 'See where for years my wages have gone. +I helped to pay for that carriage, for those horses and gold-mounted +harnesses, and for the silks and laces for your family. The money I have +earned, that should have given my wife and children a home of their own +and good clothing, I have spent at your bar. By the help of God I will +never spend another dime for drink.'" South Milwaukee has five thousand +inhabitants. Three large mills operate there. A reliable business man, +foreman in one of the mills, told me that the laboring people of South +Milwaukee put $25,000 each month into the tills of the saloons. Dr. J.O. +Peck, one of the most successful pastor evangelists of recent years, +tells of a man who crossed Chelsea Ferry to Boston one morning, and +turned into Commercial Street for his usual glass. As he poured out the +poison, the saloonkeeper's wife came in, and confidently asked for $500 +to purchase an elegant shawl she had seen at the store of Jordan, March +& Co.. He drew from his pocket a well-filled pocketbook, and counted out +the money. The man outside the counter pushed aside his glass untouched, +and laying down ten cents departed in silence. That very morning his +devoted Christian wife had asked him for ten dollars to buy a cloak, so +that she might look presentable at church. He had crossly told her he +had not the money. As he left the saloon he thought, 'Here I am helping +to pay for five-hundred-dollar cashmeres for that man's wife, but my +wife asks in vain for a ten-dollar cloak. I can't stand this. I have +spent my last dime for drink.' When the next pay-day came that meek, +loving wife was surprised with a beautiful cloak from her reformed +husband. She could scarcely believe her own eyes as he laid it on the +table. 'There, Emma, is a present for you. I have been a fool long +enough; forgive me for the past, and I will never touch liquor again.' +She threw her arms around his neck, and the hot tears told her heartfelt +joy as she sobbed out: 'Charley, I thank you a thousand times. I never +expected so nice a cloak. This seems like other days. You are so good, +and I am so happy.'" The drink bill of our Nation for last year was over +a billion of dollars, more money than was spent for missions--home and +foreign--for all of our Churches, for public education, for all the +operations of courts of justice and of public officers, and at least for +two of the staple products of use in our country, such as furniture and +flour. More than for all these was the money that our Nation paid for +drink last year. When the people of our country get their eyes open to +the cost and degradation of the drink evil, something definite will be +done by every one against it. + +The drink evil in its relation to lawlessness and crime, and to +political corruption, reveal still more ghastly aspects of it than we +have yet mentioned. The saloon strikes at the very heart, not only of +law and order, but at personal liberty and justice in securing law and +order. It was in a police court in Cincinnati on Monday morning. Before +the judge stood two stalwart policeman and a woman. She was charged +with disorderly conduct on the street and with disturbing the peace. +The policemen were sworn, and one of them told this story, to which the +other one agreed. He said: "I arrested the woman in front of a saloon +on Broadway on Saturday night. She had raised a great disturbance, was +fighting and brawling with men in the saloon, and the saloonkeeper put +her out. She used the foulest language, and with an awful threat struck +at the saloonkeeper with all her force. I then arrested her, took her to +the detention house, and locked her up." The saloonkeeper was called to +the witness stand, and said: "I know dis voman's vas making disturbance +by my saloon. She comes and she makes troubles, und she fights mit me, +und I put her de door oud. I know her all along. She vas pad vomans." +The judge turned to the trembling woman and said: "This is a pretty +clear case, madam; have you anything to say in your defense?" "Yes, +Judge," she answered, in a strangely calm, though trembling, voice: +"I am not guilty of the charge, and these men standing before you have +perjured their souls to prevent me from telling the truth. It was they, +not I, who violated the law. I was in the saloon last Saturday night, +and I will tell you how it happened. My husband did not come home from +work that evening, and I feared he had gone to the saloon. I knew he +must have drawn his week's wages, and we needed it all so badly. I put +the little ones to bed, and then waited all alone through the weary +hours until after the city clock struck twelve. Then I thought the +saloons will be closed, and he will be put out on to the street. +Probably he will not be able to get home, and the police will arrest him +and lock him up. I must go and find him, and bring him home. I wrapped +a shawl about me and started out, leaving the little ones asleep in bed. +And, Judge, I have not seen them since." She did not give way to tears, +for the worst grief can not weep. She continued: "I went to the saloon, +where I thought most like he would be. It was about twenty minutes +after twelve; but the saloon, that man's saloon"--pointing to the +saloonkeeper, who now wanted to crouch out of sight--"was still open, +and my husband and these two policemen were standing at the bar drinking +together. I stepped up to my husband and asked him to go home with me; +but the men laughed at him, and the saloonkeeper ordered me out. I said, +'No, I want my husband to go home with me.' Then I tried to tell him +how badly we were needing the money that he was spending; and then the +saloon-keeper cursed me, and told me to leave. Then I confess I could +stand no more, and said, 'You ought to be prosecuted for violating the +midnight closing law.' At this the saloonkeeper and policemen rushed +upon me and put me into the street; and one of the policemen, grasping +my arm like a vice, hissed in my ear, 'I'll get you a thirty days' +sentence in the workhouse, and then we'll see what you think about suing +people.' He called a patrol wagon, pushed me in, and drove to jail; and, +Judge, you know the rest. All day yesterday I was locked up, my children +at home alone, with no fire, no food, no mother." The judge dismissed +the woman; but the saloonkeeper, the perjured policemen, nor the corrupt +judge were ever prosecuted for their unlawfulness. The whole affair was +dropped because the saloon power in Cincinnati reigns supreme. +"This case is a matter of record in the Cincinnati courts." It is a +disgraceful fact that the liquor-traffic rules in politics to-day. A +saloonkeeper in Richmond, Virginia, overheard some one talking of +reform in municipal politics, when he scornfully said: "Any bar-room in +Richmond is a bigger man in politics than all the Churches in Richmond +put together." + +IV. THE PRACTICAL QUESTION FOR US HERE AND NOW IS, How may we openly +oppose this drink evil? + +The Churches need not expect a widespread revival of religion until +professing Christians do their duty with respect to the saloon. Mothers +and fathers need not expect their sons to remain sober while the saloon +opens to them day and night. Wives need not expect their husbands to +remain devoted and loyal until the saloon is abolished. What is our +duty? How shall we oppose the evil? How do the American people deal with +evils when they deal with them at all? When Great Britain went a little +too far in "taxation without representation," what course did the +American Colonies adopt in remedying the evil? Their chief men said, +"These Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent +States." The popular voice of the people decided it. When the British +Government unduly impressed American seamen, how was the difficulty +settled? The representatives of the people, their lawmakers, declared +war against the opposing nation, and forced her to cease her oppression. +The popular vote decided it. When Negro slavery darkened the entire sky +of our country, and caused our leading men to realize that we could not +long exist half-slave and half-free, how was the dark cloud dispelled? +The representatives of our people, the lawmakers of the land, in +letters of blood wrote the immortal Thirteenth Amendment to the American +Constitution: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a +punishment for crime, whereof the person shall have been duly convicted, +shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their +jurisdiction." When we wanted to increase our territory in 1803, and in +1845, and in 1867, how did we go about it? The representatives of the +people, the lawmakers of the land, voted to make the purchases, and +they were made. When a Territory is organized, or a State comes into the +Union, what is done? The representatives of the people, the lawmakers +of the land, vote upon it, and it is done. When treaties are to be +made with foreign countries; when immigration of foreigners is to be +regulated; when money is to be borrowed or coined; when post-offices and +post-roads are to be established; when counterfeiting is to be punished, +and public abuses are to be reformed, whose business is it? The +Constitution of the United States says the representatives of the +people, the lawmakers of the land, have this power. When will the drink +evil cease in our country? When our representatives in Congress, or +lawmakers, stand for the abolition of the American saloon, and vote it +out of existence; then, and not until then, will drunkenness cease. When +will we have representatives in Congress, lawmakers who will stand for +the abolition of the saloon, and who will vote it out of existence? Not +until you and I have select them, and place them there with our vote. +To expect Christian temperance in our country from any other source is +absolute folly. + +The abolition of drunkenness by local option is selfish, unpractical, +and unscriptural. You vote the liquor-traffic out of your town; we vote +it in ours. Remember every saloon exists only by vote of the people. +Your young people come over to our town for drink. We have the curse of +God upon us. "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink." (Hab. Ii, +15.) It is unpractical, for so long as intoxicants are made they will +be sold. It is selfish, for to vote against the saloon in your town +election, and to vote for it in your State or National election, is to +drive the mad-dog on past your door to the door of your neighbor, when +you might have killed him. + +The abolition of drunkenness by regulating the traffic through license +is the most gigantic delusion that Satan ever worked upon an intelligent +people. It is a well-known truth that "limitation is the secret of +power." The best way to provoke an early marriage between devoted lovers +is bitterly to oppose them. The stream whose water spreads over its low +banks is without depth and current and power. But confine the waters +between high, narrow banks, the bed of the stream is deepened, and its +mighty current supports animal life and turns the wheels of mill and +factory. The regulation of the liquor-traffic by license makes it a +financial and political power second to none in America to-day. To vote +for any party or man who advocates liquor license, is to give a loyal +support to the American saloon. + +To expect the abolition of drunkenness solely through processes of +education is to preach one thing and to practice another. It is to +perpetuate an evil that costs two hundred and fifty thousand precious +lives every year. It is to leave to the next generation a work that God +expects us to do here and now. Dr. Banks relates an incident witnessed +by Major Hilton on the coast of Scotland. "Just at the break of day the +people of a little hamlet on the coast were awakened by the boom of a +cannon over the stormy waves. They knew what it meant, for frequently +they had heard before the same signal of distress. Some poor souls were +out beyond the breakers perishing on a wrecked vessel, and in their last +extremity calling wildly for help. The people hastened from their houses +to the shore. Out there in the distance was a dismantled vessel pounding +itself to pieces. Perishing fellow-beings were clinging to the rigging, +and every now and then some one was swept off into the sea by the +furious waves. The life-saving crew was soon gathered. 'Man the +life-boat!' cried the man. "Where is Hardy?" But the foreman of the crew +was not there, and the danger was imminent. Aid must be immediate, +or all would be lost. The next in command sprang into the frail boat, +followed by the rest, all taking their lives in their hands in the hope +of saving others. O, how those on the shore watched their brave loved +ones as they dashed on, now over, now almost under the waves! They +reached the wreck. Like angels of deliverance they filled their craft +with almost dying men--men lost but for them. Back again they toiled, +pulling for the shore, bearing their precious freight. The first man +to help them land was Hardy, whose words rang above the roar of the +breakers: "Are you all here? Did you save them all?" With saddened faces +the reply came: "All but one. He couldn't help himself at all. We had +all we could carry. We couldn't save the last one." "Man the life-boat +again!" shouted Hardy. "I will go. What! leave one there to die alone? +A fellow-creature there, and we on shore? Man the life-boat now! +We'll save him yet." But who is this aged woman with worn garments and +disheveled hair, with agonized entreaty falling upon her knees beside +this brave, strong man? It is his mother! "O, my son! your father was +drowned in a storm like this. Your brother Will left me eight years ago, +and I have never seen his face since the day he sailed. No doubt he, +too, has found a watery grave. And now you will be lost, and I am old +and poor. O, stay with me!" "Mother," cried the man, "where one is in +peril, there is my place. If I am lost, God surely will care for you." +The plea of earnest faith prevailed. With a "God bless you, my boy!" +she released him, and speeded him on his way. Once more they watched and +prayed and waited--those on the shore--while every muscle was strained +toward the fast-sinking ship by those in the life-saving boat. At last +it reached the vessel. The clinging figure was lifted and helped to +its place. Back came the boat. How eagerly they looked and called in +encouragement, and cheered as it came nearer! "Did you get him?" was the +cry from the shore. Lifting his hands to his mouth to trumpet the words +on in advance of their landing, Hardy called back above the roar of the +storm, "Tell mother it is brother Will!" + +My friend, simply talking and praying will not save our loved ones from +drunkards' graves. We must man the life-boat of municipal, State, and +National reform, and vote for principle and Christian temperance until +we save the last man. He may be "brother Will." + + + + +III. GAMBLING, CARD-PLAYING + +GAMBLING has become a moral plague of modern society. In one form or +another it has entered the rank and file of every department of life--in +private parlor over cards; in hotel drawing-room over election reports; +in college athletic grounds over brains and brawn; in the counting-room +over the price of stocks; in the racing tournament over jockeying and +speed; in the Board of Trade hall over future prices of the necessaries +of life; in the den of iniquity at dice; in the drinking saloon at +the slot-machine; in the people's fair at the wheel of fortune; in the +gambling den itself at every conceivable form of swindling trick and +game. Gambling has come to be almost an omnipresent evil. In treating +this subject, it is our purpose to point out something of the nature +of its evil, not only that we may be kept from it but that we may save +others whom it threatens to destroy. + +Gambling grows out of a misuse of the natural tendency to take risks. A +social vice is some social right misused. Men have the social right to +congregate to talk over measures of social and economic welfare. But if +they discuss measures which oppose the principles of free Government, +their meeting together becomes a crime against the State. A personal +vice is some personal right misused. As some one has put it, "Vice is +virtue gone mad." It is a personal right and a personal virtue to be +charitable, even beneficent. But since justice comes before mercy, if +one uses for charity that which should be used in payment of debt, his +virtue of beneficence becomes a vice of theft. So it is with gambling. +It is giving the natural tendency to chance, to risk an illegitimate +play. The person who is afraid to risk anything accomplishes but little +in any way, is seldom a speculator, and never a gambler. Usually the +gambler is the man who is naturally full of hazard, who loves to run +risks, to take chances. Nor will one find a more practical and useful +tendency in one's make-up than this. See the discoverer of America and +his brave crew for days and days sailing across an unknown sea toward an +unknown land. But that was the price of a New World. Note the hazard +and risk of our Pilgrim Fathers. But they gave to the world a new +colonization. See the Second greatest American on his knees before +Almighty God, promising him that he would free four million of slaves, +providing General Lee should be driven back out of Maryland. General +Lee was driven back, and that immortal though most hazardous of all +documents, from man's point of view, was read to his Cabinet and signed +by Abraham Lincoln. All great men have taken great risks. Not a section +of the United States has been settled without some risk. No business +enterprise is launched without some risk. To secure an education, to +learn a trade, to marry a wife, all involve some risk, much risk. The +tendency to risk, to hazard, to chance it is a practical and useful +tendency. Only let this tendency be governed always by wisdom +and justice. No person ever became a gambler until consciously or +unconsciously he forfeited wisdom and justice in his chances and risks. + +Gambling takes a variety of forms. First of all is the professional +gambler. He has no other business. His investment is a "pack of cards" +and a box of "dice. See him with his long, slender fingers; with his +shaggy, unkempt hair; with keen eyes, and a sordid countenance. He is +prepared to "rake in" a thousand dollars a night, and would not hesitate +to strip any man of his fortune. The professional is found at county +fairs, on railway trains, in gilded dens, and at public resorts. Being a +professional outlaw, and subject at any time to arrest and imprisonment, +usually he has an accomplice. Sometimes a gang work together, so that +it is with perfect ease they may relieve any unwary novice of his money. +They know human nature on its low, mercenary side, and soon can find +their man in a crowd. But few persons have started out in life having +it for their aim to get something for nothing who, sooner or later, have +not been "taken in" by this gang of swindlers. They know their kind. +The end of the professional gambler is final loss and ruin. He will make +$100, he will make $500, he will make $1,000, he will make $2,000; then +he will lose all. Then he will borrow some money and start anew. And +again he will make $200, he will make $600, he will make $1,200, and he +will lose all. Like the winebibber and the professional murderer, the +professional gambler has his den. Not a large city in the world is +without these haunts of vice. Who is it that feeds and supports them? +The novice at cards and dice, husbands and sons of respectable families, +just as the occasional dram-taker supports the saloon. As one has asked: + + "Could fools to keep their own contrive, + On whom, on what could gamesters thrive?" + --GAY. + +The penny novice seeks the penny gambling den. The aristocratic +speculator seeks the gilded gambling den. The expert trickster of large +luck and large fortune makes his way to Monte Carlo, the gambling Mecca +of the world. Monte Carlo is a famous resort situated in the northwest +part of Italy. It is notorious for its gambling saloon. This city of +nearly four thousand inhabitants is located in Monaco, the smallest +independent country in the world. Monaco is about eight miles square, +and lies on a "barren, rocky ridge between the sea and lofty, almost +inaccessible rocks." The soil is barren, except in small tracts +which are used for fruit-gardens. For centuries the inhabitants, the +Monagasques, lived by marauding expeditions, both by sea and land, and +by slight commerce with Genoa, Marseilles, and Nice. But in the +last century the people have converted their country and city into +a world-wide resort. In 1860, M. Blanc, a famous gambler and saloon +proprietor of two German cities, went to Monaco, and for an immense +sum of money received sole privilege to convert their province into a +gambler's paradise. Soon immense marble buildings arose in the midst +of such beauty as to make it a modern rival of the gardens of ancient +Babylon. Costly statues, gorgeous vases, graceful fountains, elegant +basins, and beautiful terraces, all of which are made alluring by +blooming plants, by light illuminations, and by free concerts of music +day and night,--these are the attractions in this gambler's paradise. +Here fortunes are won and lost in a night. For, as has been sung, + + "Dice will run the contrary way, + As well is known to all who play, + And cards will conspire as in treason." + --HOOD. + +Then we have the speculator in commerce. He is the denizen of the Board +of Trade hall. He speculates on the prices of next week's, of next +month's meat and breadstuffs. And still this sort of gambler may be a +book-keeper in a bank, a farm hand, or a clerk in a grocery store. It +ha become so simple and so common a practice for persons to speculate on +the markets that any person with ten dollars, or twenty-five dollars, +or a hundred dollars may take his chances. Tens of thousands of dollars +to-day are being swept into this silent whirlpool, the gambler's +commerce. + +Also we have the pool gambler. He is actuated by love of excitement. He +is found at the race course, at the baseball diamond, and at all sorts +of contests, where he may find opportunity to be on the outcome. It is +a common thing for young men to steal their employers' money, for young +girls to take their hard-earned wages to stake on games and races. +Recently $175,000 were paid for the exclusive gambling right for one +year at the Washington Park races in Chicago. + +Last of all, we have the society gambler. He is growing numerous to-day. +He is the same person, whether clad in full dress in the drawing-room of +the worldling, or in common dress around the fireside of the unchristian +Church member. Like the professional gambler his instrument is "cards," +and he can shake the "dice." His games are whist, progressive euchre, +and sometimes poker. The stakes now are not money, but the gratification +of excitement and the indulgence of passion. One, two, four hours go by +almost unnoticed. Prizes are offered for the best player. As a Catholic +priest told me after he had won a small sum with cards. Said he: "We +just put up a few dollars, you know, to lend devotions to the game." +So prizes are offered in the social gambling "to lend devotions to the +game." It is under such circumstances as these that young men and +young women receive their first lessons in card-playing. A passion for +card-playing is called forth, developed, and must be satisfied, even +though it takes one in low places among vile associates. "A Christian +gentleman came from England to this country. He brought with him $70,000 +in money. He proposed to invest the money. Part of it was his own; part +of it was his mother's. He went into a Christian Church; was coldly +received, and said to himself: 'Well, if that is the kind of Christian +people they have in America, I don't want to associate with them much.' +So he joined a card-playing party. He went with them from time to +time. He went a little further on, and after a while he was in games of +chance, and lost all of the $70,000. Worse than that, he lost all of his +good morals; and on the night that he blew his brains out he wrote to +the lady to whom he was affianced an apology for the crime he was about +to commit, and saying in so many words, 'My first step to ruin was the +joining of that card party.'" + +In all of its forms gambling is loaded down with evil. In the first +place it destroys the incentive to honest work. Let the average young +man win a hundred dollars at the races, it will so turn his head against +slow and honorable ways of getting money that he will watch for every +opportunity to get it easily and abundantly. The young girl who risks +fifty cents and gets back fifty dollars will no longer be of service as +a quiet, contented worker. The spirit of speculation, the passion to get +something for nothing, is calculated to destroy the incentive to honest +toil and to honorable methods of gain. As one values his character, +as he values his peace of mind, so should he zealously guard himself +against overfascinating games of chance. Once we had a family in our +Church who played cards, and who taught their children to play cards. Of +course these families had no time for prayer-meeting, nor for Christian +work. Card-playing for amusement or for money will create a passion +that must be satisfied, although one must give up home and business +and pleasure. In a town where we once lived a young man and his wife +attended our Church. In every way the husband was kind, and attentive +to business. But he had fallen a victim to playing cards for money. +When that passion would seize him he would leave his business, his hired +help, his home and wife and little one, and would lose himself for days +at a time seeking to satisfy that passion. An enviable husband, father, +citizen, and neighbor but for that evil; but how wretchedly that ruined +all! Dr. Holland, of Springfield, Massachusetts, says: "I have all my +days had a card-playing community open to my observation, and yet I am +unable to believe that that which is the universal resort of starved +soul and intellect, which has never in any way linked to itself tender, +elevating, or beautiful associations, but, the tendency of which is to +unduly absorb the attention from more weighty matters, can recommend +itself to the favor of Christ's disciples. I have this moment," says he, +"ringing in my ears the dying injunction of my father's early friend: +'Keep your son from cards. Over them I have murdered time and lost +heaven.'" + +Gambling is dishonest. It seeks something for nothing. Man possesses no +money, that he might risk giving it to some rogue to waste in sin. All +the property one possesses, he possesses it by stewardship to be used +wisely and honestly for good. Every age has needed a revival of the +Golden Rule in business. Much of the business of to-day is attended to +on the dishonest principle that characterizes gambling, "Get as much as +possible for as little as possible." This spirit is first cousin to the +spirit of gambling. The only difference is, one is called wrong and is +wrong; the other is wrong and is called right. Tell the gambler he is a +thief; he will acknowledge it, and will beat you, if he can, while he is +talking to you. Tell the other man he is a thief, and he will sue you at +court and win his case, although it is just as wrong to steal $100 from +an unbalanced mind, as it is to steal $100 from an unlocked safe or +off of an untrained football team. It will be an easy matter to produce +professional gamblers so long as society upholds dishonest dealers +by another name. What men need in this matter is moral and spiritual +vision, spiritual discernment. Some persons live by taking advantage of +those who are down. + +In all of its forms gambling leads to a long train of crimes. In +addition to his crime of theft the professional gambler, through passion +or drink, becomes a murderer. I knew a professional gambler who killed +a man, with whom he had been playing cards for money, for fifty cents. +After it was all over the man was sorry he had done it, for he had +committed the crime in a passion while he was intoxicated. The one who +speculates on the markets is not counted dishonest by the world, but how +often and how quickly it leads one into crime! In our neighboring town +in Illinois a man of a good family and of good standing in the community +began to speculate on the Chicago Board of Trade. He was as honest a +person, perhaps, as you or I. He thought he was. For years he had been +a trusted, Christian worker, and treasurer of the Sunday-school. But he +made just one venture too many. He had lost all; could not even replace +the Sunday-school fund that he had simply used, no doubt expecting to +replace it with usury; but the loss and disgrace were too much for him +to face, so he deserted home and friends and honor and all, and secretly +ran away. The speculating gambler became a deserting embezzler. The +person who has acquired a passion for betting on races and games is on a +fair way to professional gambling and to speculating on the markets. And +rarely does one ever escape these, if once he gets a start in them. + +The evil of society gambling is most dangerous of all, because it is +most subtle of all. Ah first no one would suspect an innocent game of +cards, played just for fun. You may be the fourth one to make up a game; +you may not know how to play, but you are told you can quickly learn. +You brave it, and go in for a game. The next time a similar circumstance +arises, you can not easily decline, for you must confess you have +played, and so you go in as an old player. This may be as far as the +matter ever goes with you. But here is one who is more impulsive than +you; his surroundings are entirely different. He learns to play, and +comes to revel in it. A passion is created for the game. He is shrewd; +soon learns the tricks, and one evening--purely by chance, as it seems +to him--he wins his first five dollars. Strange possibilities with +cards lay hold upon him. He is consumed by that passion. He plays for +business, for keeps; he has become a professional gambler. Ah! this is +no finespun tale; it is being worked out every year in our country, all +over the world. Among many things for which I have to thank my father +and mother not the least is, that they would allow no gamblers, nor +gambling, nor the instruments of gambling about our home. Better keep +a pet rattlesnake for your child than a deck of cards; for if he +gets poisoned by the snake he may be cured; but if the passion for +card-playing should happen to seize him, there is little chance of a +cure. The inmates of our penitentiaries to-day, almost to a man, testify +that "card-playing threw them into bad company, led them into sin, and +was one of the causes of their downfall." Dr. Talmage was asked if there +could be any harm in a pack of cards. He Said: "Instead of directly +answering your question, I will give you as My opinion that there are +thousands of men with as strong a brain as you have, who have gone +through card-playing into games of chance, and have dropped down into +the gambler's life and into the gambler's hell." A prisoner in a jail +in Michigan wrote a letter to a temperance paper, in which he gives this +advice for young men: "Let cards and liquor alone, and you will never +be behind the gates." Friends, not every one who touches liquor is a +drunkard, but every drunkard touches liquor; so not every one who plays +cards is a professional gambler, but every professional gambler plays +cards. Is there nothing significant about these facts. "A word to the +wise is sufficient." "In a railway train sat four men playing cards. One +was a judge, and two of the others were lawyers. Near them sat a poor +mother, a widow in black. The sight of the men at their game made her +nervous. She kept quiet as long as she could; but finally rising came to +them, and addressing the judge, asked: 'Do you know me?' 'No, madam, +I do not,' said he. 'Well, said the mother, 'you sentenced my son to +State's prison for life.' Turning to one of the lawyers, she said: 'And +you, sir, pleaded against him. He was all I had. He worked hard on the +farm, was a good boy, and took care of me until he began to play cards, +when he took to gambling and was lost.'" Dr. Guthrie writes: "In regard +to the lawfulness of certain pursuits, pleasures, and amusements, it +is impossible to lay down any fixed and general rule; but we may +confidently say that whatever is found to unfit you for religious +duties, or to interfere with the performance of them; whatever +dissipates your mind or cools the fervor of your devotions; whatever +indisposes you to read your Bibles or to engage in prayer, wherever +the thought of a bleeding Savior, or of a holy God, or of the day of +judgment falls like a cold shadow on your enjoyment, the pleasures you +can not thank God for, on which you can not ask His blessing, whose +recollections will haunt a dying bed and plant sharp thorns in its +uneasy pillow,--these are not for you..Never go where you can not ask +God to go with you; never be found where you would not like death to +find you. Never indulge in any pleasure that will not bear the morning's +reflection. Keep yourselves unspotted from the world, not from its spots +only, but even from its suspicions." + + + +IV. DANCING. + + +DANCING is the expression of inward feelings by means of rhythmical +movements of the body. Usually these movements are in measured step, and +are accompanied by music. + +In some form or another dancing is as old as the world, and has been +practiced by rude as well as by civilized peoples. The passion for +amateur dancing always has been strongest among savage nations, who have +made equal use of it in religious rites and in war. With the savages +the dancers work themselves into a perfect frenzy, into a kind of mental +intoxication. But as civilization has advanced dancing has modified its +form, becoming more orderly and rhythmical. The early Greeks made the +art of dancing into a system, expressive of all the different passions. +For example, the dance of the Furies, so represented, would create +complete terror among those who witnessed them. The Greek philosopher, +Aristotle, ranked dancing with poetry, and said that certain dancers, +with rhythm applied to gesture, could express manners, passions, and +actions. The most eminent Greek sculptors studied the attitude of the +dancers for their art of imitating the passions. In a classical Greek +song, Apollo, one of the twelve greater gods, the son of Zeus the chief +god, and the god of medicine, music, and poetry, was called The Dancer. +In a Greek line Zeus himself is represented as dancing. In Sparta, a +province of ancient Greece, the law compelled parents to exercise their +children in dancing from the age of five years. They were led by grown +men, and sang hymns and songs as they danced. In very early times a +Greek chorus, consisting of the whole population of the city, would meet +in the market-place to offer up thanksgivings to the god of the country. +Their jubilees were always attended with hymn-singing and dancing. +The Jewish records make frequent mention of dancing, but always "as a +religious ceremony, or as an expression of gratitude and praise." As +a means of entertainment in private society, dancing was practiced +in ancient times, but by professional dancers, and not by the company +themselves. It is true that the Bible has sanctioned dancing, but let +us remember, first, that it was always a religious rite; second, that +it was practiced only on joyful occasions, at national feasts, and after +great victories; third, that usually it was "performed by maidens in +the daytime, in open air, in highways, fields, or groves;" fourth, that +"there are no instances of dancing sanctioned in the Bible, in which +both sexes united in the exercise, either as an act of worship or as an +amusement;" fifth, that any who perverted the dance from a sacred use +to purposes of amusement were called infamous. The only records in +Scripture of dancing as a social amusement were those of the ungodly +families described by Job xxi, 11-13, who spent their time in luxury +and gayety, and who came to a sudden destruction; and the dancing of +Herodias, Matt. Xiv, 6, which led to the rash vow of King Herod and to +the murder of John the Baptist. So much for the history of dancing. + +The modern dance in which both sexes freely mingle, irrespective of +character, purely for amusement, at late hours, at which intoxicants, in +some form, are generally used, is, essentially, an institution of vice. +The modern dance is as different from the dancing of ancient times, and +from the dancing sanctioned in the Bible, as daylight is from dark, +as good is from bad. The modern dance imperils health, it poisons the +social nature; it destroys intellectual growth; and it robs men and +women of their virtue. Let us understand one another. To attend one +dance may not accomplish all of this in any person. One may attend many +dances, and he himself not see these results marked in his character, +but some one else will see them. For in the nature of the institution +the modern dance affects in all these particulars those whom it reaches. +The tendencies in a single dance are in these directions. In a way +peculiar to itself the modern dance imperils health. Though detestable +and out of date, as are the modern kissing games, yet no one ever heard +of one of those performances continuing until three and five o'clock in +the morning. Young people do not stay up all night, ride five, ten, and +twenty miles to play authors, or to snap caroms, or to play charades, +as interesting in a social way as these innocent amusements may be. The +fact that one will go to this extreme in keeping late hours to attend +the dance, and will not keep such late hours for any other form of +amusement, proves that the dance, as an institution, is at fault in +producing such irregularities. And then who ever heard of one having to +dress in a certain way to attend a purely social gathering. But let a +young lady attend a fashionable ball or a regular round dance of any +note, whatever, and if she wears the civil gown she will be thought tame +and snubbed. She must dress for this occasion, and thus, from a health +point of view, so expose her body that after the excitement and heat of +a prolonged round she takes her place in a slight draught of air, and a +severe cold is contracted. And this exposure is further increased by +the sudden change from a close, hot room to the damp, chilly air of the +early morning, on her journey home. It is possible to guard against all +of this, but are those persons who attend such exercises likely to be +cautious in such practical matters. At least, this risk of exposure for +men and women is peculiar to the dance, and it is certain that many +are physically injured in this way. The modern dance poisons the social +nature. The chief exercise at the modern dance is dancing. Those who +have attended dances, as a social recreation, have complained that they +never have an opportunity to get acquainted with one another. Such a +luxury as a complete conversation on any theme is out of the question. +It is a form of amusement that stultifies the communicative faculties, +and fosters social seclusion. Some one might say this may be a good +thing, since every grade in moral and social standing are represented. +Yes, but this only acknowledges the lack of opportunity for social +fellowship. It is not true that the dance, as an institution, is not +patronized by the most capable in conversation and companionship? +Certainly this is true in the so-called higher society, among those +whose sole ambition is to excel in formal manners and in personal +appearance at the gay function, and at the social ball. To be +communicative one must have something to communicate, and this means a +cultivation of the mind and heart. True social fellowship is one of the +sweetest pleasures of life and always has its source in the culture of +the soul. Whatever may be said for or against the modern dance, it is +true that because of the mixed characters of its attendants, and for +want of opportunity to communicate, the social nature becomes neglected +and abused, and may be fatally poisoned. + +The modern dance destroys intellectual growth. The person who has the +dance-craze cares no more for mental improvement and growth than a +starving man cares for splendid recipes for fine cooking. The thought of +a problem to be solved, of a book to be read, of an organ exercise to +be practiced, of all things, are most tame to the one who is filled with +dreams of the last dance, and with visions of the one that is to come. +To grow, the mind must be free from excitement. The fault with the dance +in this respect is that it has in it a fascination that does not exist +in the ordinary social amusement. Some persons complain that they can +not get an evening to go off well without dancing. But this is only an +open confession to mental vacuity, to intellectual poverty. For one need +know but little to flourish at the dance. And always, where little is +required, intellectually, little is given. It is the rule that those who +are in the greatest need of mental cultivation and growth are those +who make up the dancing crowd. And the fact that the dance, as an +institution, in no way stimulates intellectual thought, destines those +who dance to remain on the lower intellectual plane. + +Last, and worst of all, the dance robs men and women of their virtue, +and this often at the first unconsciously. If it is not for health and +physical vigor that one follows up dancing; if it is not the peculiar +social tie that binds dancers together; if it is not the incentive to +intellectual growth and equipment, what is it? A secret lies hid away +somewhere in the institution of the modern dance, that makes it the +chiefest attraction of worldly-minded and often of base-hearted people. +What is that secret? Ah, my friend, it is the appeal to the most sacred +instincts and passions of a man and of a woman! This appeal is peculiar +to the modern dance by the accident of physical contact that men and +women assume in dancing, and also by the circumstances that attend +it, namely, mixed society, late hours, and the customary use of strong +drink. No honest, normally passionate person, who has made it a practice +of attending dances, will deny the truth of this charge. One may never +have thought of it in this way, but when he stops to think he knows that +it is true. It is through ignorance of these circumstances, and of their +bad effects, that many a well-meaning person, presumably to have a good +time, or to acquire heel-grace, goes into the dance, secures a passion +for dancing, and through its seductive influences are led into sin and +shame. The following is an incident out of his own experience related +by Professor T. A. Faulkner, an ex-dancing master. Professor Faulkner is +the author of the little book entitled "From the Ball Room to Hell." A +book which every person who sees no harm in dancing should read. + +"Here is a girl. The one remaining child of wealthy parents, their idol +and joy. A dancing-school having opened near their home, the daughter, +for accomplishment, was sent to it. She came from her home, modest, and +her innate spirit of purity rebelled against the liberties taken by the +dancing-master, and the men he introduced to her. She became indignant +at the indecent attitudes she was called upon to assume, but noticing a +score of young women, many of them from the best homes in the town, all +yielding to the vulgar embrace, she cast aside that spirit of modesty +which had been the development of years of home-training, and setting +her face against nature's protective warnings, gave herself, as did the +others, to this prolonged embrace set to music. Having learned to dance, +its fascinations led her an enthusiastic captive. Modesty was crucified, +decency outraged, virtue lost its power over her soul, and she spent +her days dreaming of the delights of the sensual whirl of the evening. +Hardly conscious of the change she had now become as bold as any of the +women, and loved the embrace of the charmer. The graduation of the class +was, of course, the occasion of a waltzing reception. To that reception +she went, attended by her father, who looked with a proud heart on +the fulsome greeting his dear one received. After a little the father +retired, leaving his daughter to the care of the many handsome gallants +who danced attendance upon her. The reception did not close until +the small hours of the morning. Each waltz became more voluptuous; +intoxicated by sensuality, the dancers became more bold, and lust was +aroused in every breast. How many sins that reception occasioned, I +do not know; this, at least, is sure, that this girl who entered +that dancing-hall three months before, as pure as an angel, was that +night.robbed of her honor and returned to her home deprived forever of +that most precious jewel of womanhood--virtue. Her first impulse the +next morning was self-destruction; then she deluded herself with the +thought of marriage with her dancing companion, but he still further +insulted her by declaring that he wanted a pure woman for his wife. What +was her end? Shunned by the very society which egged her on to ruin, her +self-respect was gone with her lost purity, she went to her own kind, +and in shame is closing her days." "Of two hundred brothel inmates to +whom Professor Faulkner talked, and who were frank enough to answer his +question as to the direct cause of their shame, seven said poverty and +abuse; ten, willful choice; twenty, drink given them by their parents; +and one hundred and sixty-three, dancing and the ball-room." "A +former chief of police of New York City says that three-fourths of the +abandoned girls of this city were ruined by dancing." Of the dance, one +says: "It lays its lecherous hand upon the fair character of innocence, +and converts it into a putrid corrupting thing. It enters the domain +of virtue, and with silent, steady blows takes the foundation from +underneath the pedestal on which it sits enthroned. It lists the gate +and lets in a flood of vice and impurity that sweeps away modesty, +chastity, and all sense of shame. It keeps company with the low, the +degraded, and the vile. It feeds upon the passion it inflames, and +fattens on the holiest sentiments, turned by its touch to filth and +rottenness. It loves the haunts of vice, and is at home in the company +of harlots and debauchees." George T. Lemon says: "No Church in +Christendom commends or even excuses the dance. All unite to condemn +it." The late Episcopal bishop of Vermont, writes: "Dancing is +chargeable with waste of time, interruption of useful study, the +indulgence of personal vanity and display, and the premature incitement +of the passions. At the age of maturity it adds to these no small +danger to health by late hours, flimsy dress, heated rooms, and exposed +persons." Episcopal Bishop Meade, of Virginia, declares: "Social dancing +is not among the neutral things which, within certain limits, we may do +at pleasure, and it is not among the things lawful, but not expedient, +but it is in itself wrong, improper, and of bad effect." Episcopal +Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio, putting the dance and the theater together, +writes: "The only line that I would draw in regard to these is that of +entire exclusion..The question is not what we can imagine them to be, +but what they always have been, will be, and must be, in such a world as +this, to render them pleasurable to those who patronize them. Strip them +bare until they stand in the simple innocence to which their defenders' +arguments would reduce them and the world would not have them." A Roman +Catholic priest testifies that "the confessional revealed the fact that +nineteen out of every twenty women who fall can trace the beginning of +their state to the modern dance." + + + + +V. THEATER-GOING. + +WITH drunkenness, gambling, and dancing, theater-going dates from the +beginning of history, and with these it is not only questionable in +morals, but it is positively bad. Every one who knows any thing about +the institution of the theater, as such, knows that it always has been +corrupting in its influence. Not only those who attend the theater +pronounce it bad, as a whole, but it is frowned upon by play-writers, +and by actors and actresses themselves. Five hundred years before +Christ, Jew, Pagan, and Christian spoke against the theater. It is +stated on good authority that the dissipations of the theater were the +chief cause of the decadence of ancient Greece. At one time, Augustus, +the emperor of Rome, was asked as a means of public safety, to suppress +the theater. The early Christians held the theater in such bad repute as +to rank it with the heathen temple. And to these two places they would +not go, even to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ. Nor has the +moral tone and character of the theater improved, even in our day. Dr. +Theodore Cuyler, for many years an experienced pastor in Brooklyn, +Says: "The American theater is a concrete institution, to be judged as +a totality. It is responsible for what it tolerates and shelters. We, +therefore, hold it responsible for whatever of sensual impurity and +whatever of irreligion, as well as for whatever of occasional and +sporadic benefit there may be bound up in its organic life. Instead +of helping Christ's kingdom, it hinders; instead of saving souls, it +corrupts and destroys." Dr. Buckley gives this testimony: "Being aware +of the fact that the drama, like every thing else which caters to the +taste, has its fashions--rising and falling and undergoing various +changes--now improving, and then degenerating, I have thought it +desirable to institute a careful inquiry into the plays which have been +performed in the principal theaters of New York during the past three +years. Accordingly, I procured the copies used by the performers in +preparing for their parts, and took pains to ascertain wherein, in +actual use, the actors diverged from the printed copies. They number +over sixty, and, with the exception of a few unprinted plays, include +all that have been produced in the prominent theaters of New York during +the three years now about closing..It is a singular fact, that, with +three or four exceptions, those dramatic compositions, among the sixty +or more under discussion, which are morally objectionable, are of a +comparatively low order of literary execution. But if language and +sentiments, which would not be tolerated among respectable people, +and would excite indignation if addressed to the most uncultivated and +coarse servant girl, not openly vicious, by an ordinary young man, and +profaneness which would brand him who uttered it as irreligious, are +improper amusements for the young and for Christians of every age, then +at least fifty of these plays are to be condemned." + +In the first place the theater leads one into bad company. As a class, +the performers are licentious. How can one be in their company, be moved +to laughter and to tears and not be contaminated by them? One who has +studied the theater tells us that the "fruits of the Spirit and +the fruits of the stage exhibit as pointed a contrast as the human +imagination can conceive." The famous Macready, as he retired from the +stage, wrote: "None of my children, with my consent under any pretense, +shall ever enter the theater, nor shall they have any visiting +connection with play actors or actresses." Dr. Johnson asks the +question: "How can they mingle together as they do, men and women, and +make public exhibitions of themselves as they do, in such circumstances, +with such surroundings, with such speech as much often be on their +lips to play the plays that are written, in such positions as they must +sometimes take, affecting such sentiment and passions--how can they do +this without moral contamination?" And we would ask, how can persons +live enrapt with this sort of thing for hours and hours each week, the +year around, and not become equally contaminated, for to the onlooker +all this comes as a reality, while to those who are performing, it is +hired shamming? Therefore, as the pupil becomes the teacher, so the +attendant at the theater becomes like the one who performs. So that to +go to the theater is to "sit in the seat of the scornful or to stand in +the way of sinners." "There you find the man," says one, "who has lost +all love for his home, the careless, the profane, the spendthrift, the +drunkard, and the lowest prostitute of the street. They are found in all +parts of the house; they crowd the gallery, and together should aloud +the applause, greeting that which caricatures religion, sneers at +virtue, or hints at indecency." Not only the actors and the onlookers of +the average theater are vile, but all of the immediate associations of +the playhouse must correspond with it. If not in the same building with +the theater, in adjoining ones, at least, are found the wine-parlor and +the brothel. It is generally conceded that no theater can be prosperous +if it is wholly separated from these adjuncts of evil. + +The theater, therefore, kills spiritually and degrades the moral life +of the one who attends it. The theater deals with the spectacular. +This appeals to the eye, to the ear, and to all of the outer senses. +Spirituality depends upon a cultivation of the spiritual senses that +Grace has opened up within the soul. Hence, the spectacular is directly +opposed to the spiritual. The deep, contemplative, spiritual soul could +find little or no food in the false, clap-trap representations of the +modern stage. And to find an increased interest here is evidence that +one lacks spiritual life, at least deep-seated spiritual life. This is +why so many professing Christians are so eager to go to the card-party, +to the dancing-party, and to the theater. The inner-sense life of the +soul is dead, and one must have something upon which to feed, hence he +feeds upon the husks of "imprudent and un-Christian amusements." And let +one who has a measure of spiritual life, instead of increasing it, +seek to satisfy his soul-longing by means of the spectacular, of false +representations in any form, soon he will lose the spiritual life that +he has. And this loss will be marked by an increased demand for the +spectacular. The surest proof to-day that the spiritual life of +the Church is waning in certain sections, is not so much that her +membership-roll is not on the increase, but that professing Christian +people are running wild after cards and dancing and the theater. +Evangelist Sayles declares: "The people of our so-called best society, +and Christian people, many that have been looked upon as active workers, +sit now and gaze upon scenes in our theaters, without a blush, that +twenty-five years ago would not have been countenanced..The moral and +spiritual life of many a Christian has been weakened by the eyes gazing +upon the scenes of the theater." Says he, "The Christian, through +attendance upon the playhouse, creates a relish for worldly things, and +so spiritual things become distasteful." + +Then, to go to one theater, sanctions all. To have heard and to have +seen Joe Jefferson in "Rip Van Winkle," Richard Mansfield in "The +Merchant of Venice," or Edwin Booth or Sir Henry Irving, or Maude Adams, +or Julia Marlowe in their best plays, is to have received a deeper +insight into human nature, and a stronger purpose to become sympathetic +and true, but who can afford to sanction all that is base and villainous +is the institution of the modern theater for the sake of learning +sympathy and truth and human nature from a few worthy actors, when he +may find all of this as truthfully, if not as artistically, set forth +by the orator, by the musician, by the painter, and by the author? It is +not cant, it is not pharisaism, it is not a weak claim of Christianity, +but it is common honesty, mighty truth, a cardinal and beautiful +teaching of Jesus Christ to deny one's self for the welfare of the +weaker brother. Let one go to hear Mansfield in Shakespeare, and his +neighbor boy will take his friend and go to the vaudeville, and his only +excuse to his parents and to his half-taught mind and heart will be, +"Well, Mr. So-and-So goes to the theater, he is a member of the Church +and superintendent of the Sunday-school; surely there is no harm for +me to go." To the immature mind what seems right for one person seems +lawful for another. This is because such a person has not learned to +discriminate between what is bad and what is good. Therefore, if the +theater as an institution has more in it that is bad than It has in +it that is good, rather if the general tendency of the theater, as an +institution, is bad, the safe thing for one's self and for those who +read one's life as an example, is to discard it entirely. + +In view of these facts, no person can attend the theater at all without +hurting his influence. The ideal life is that one which gives offense +of stumbling to no one. A successful preacher who had an aversion toward +speaking on the subject of questionable amusements, when asked what he +believed concerning a certain form of amusement, replied: "See what I +do, and know what I believe." It is a glorious life whose actions are an +open epistle of righteousness and peace, read and believed and honored +by all men. + +"Some time ago a gentleman teaching a large class of young men in a +Chicago Sunday-school, desired to attend a theater for the purpose of +seeing a celebrated actor. He was not a theater-goer, and thought that +no harm could come from it. He had no sooner taken his seat, however, +than he saw in the opposite gallery some of the members of his class. +They also saw him and began commenting on the fact that their teacher +was at the theater. They thought it inconsistent in him, lost their +interest in the class, and he lost his influence over the young men. +That teacher tied his hands by this one act, so that he could not speak +out against the gross sins of the theater." + +Those who defend theater-going say that if Christian people would +patronize the theater that it would be made more respectable. But over +a thousand years of history proves that this principle fails here as it +does elsewhere. A Christian woman marries an unchristian man with the +hope that he will become a Christian; a steady, sensible woman in all +other matters marries a man who drinks, with the thought of reforming +him; one associates with worldly and sensual companions, expecting to +make them better; but, alas, what blasted hopes, what wretched failures +in all of these instances, at least in the most of them! You can not +reform vice; you may whitewash a sin, but it will be sin, still. To +purify a character or an institution one must not become a part of it +by sympathy, nor by association. This is what the psalmist meant when +he said, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsels of the +ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of +the scornful." And so it is, that every effort at reforming the theater, +thus far has failed. The Rev. C.W. Winchester says concerning the +reforming of the theater: "The facts are, (1) that the theater in this +city and country never had the support and encouragement of moral and +religious people it has now; (2) that the theater here was never so +bad. Clearly, if Christian patronage is going to reform the theater, the +reform ought to begin. But the grade is downward. The theater is growing +worse and worse." Dr. Wilkinson makes this statement on the question +of reforming the theater: "Now the Protestant Christians of New York +number, by recent computation, less than seventy-five thousand souls, in +a population of a million. Supposing a general agreement among them all +that a regular attendance at the theater was at this juncture the most +pressing and most promising method of evangelical effort, they would +not then constitute even one-tenth of the numerical patronage which the +management would study to please." Dr. Herrick Johnson says: "The ideal +stage is out of the question. It is out of the question just as pure, +chaste, human nudity is out of the question..The nature of theatrical +performances, the essential demands of the stage, the character of the +plays, and the constitution of human nature, make it impossible that +the theater should exist, save under a law of degeneracy. Its trend is +downward; its centuries of history tell just this one story. The actual +stage of to-day..is a moral abomination. In Chicago, at least, it is +trampling on the Sabbath with defiant scoff. It is defiling our youth. +It is making crowds familiar with the play of criminal passions. It is +exhibiting women with such approaches to nakedness as can have no other +design than to breed lust behind the onlooking eyes. It is furnishing +candidates for the brothel. It is getting us used to scenes that rival +the voluptuousness and licentious ages of the past." As never before +to-day, has the theater asked for the support of Church members. And the +ideal stage, with virtuous performers, and with pure dramas, are held up +as a sample of what Christian people are invited to attend. Dr. Cuyler +says: "Every person of common sense knows that the actual average +theater is no more an ideal playhouse than the average pope is like St. +Peter, or the average politician is like Abraham Lincoln. A Puritanic +theater would become bankrupt in a twelvemonth. The great mass of +those who frequent the playhouse go there for strong, passionate +excitements..I do not affirm," says Dr. Cuyler, "that every popular play +is immoral, and every attendant is on a scent for sensualities. But the +theater is a concrete institution, it must be judged in the gross and to +a tremendous extent it is only a gilded nastiness. It unsexes womanhood +by putting her publicly in male attire--too often in no attire at all." + +"So competent an authority as the famous actress, Olga Nethersole, +recently declared that the only kind of play which may hope for success +with English-speaking audiences at the present day is the play which is +sufficiently indicated by calling it immoral. There is no doubt about +it that the theater, as at present conducted, is pulling the stones from +the foundations of public morality, and weakening, and in many quarters +endangering, the whole structure of society. The atmosphere of the +modern theater is lustful and irreverent. It is a good place for +Christians to keep away from. It is a good opportunity for the strong +man to deny himself for the sake of his younger or weaker brother." + + + + +PART II. WORTHY SUBSTITUTES. + + "Get the spindle and thy distaff ready, and God will send + thee flax." + + + + +VI. BOOKS AND READING. + +MANY BOOKS, MUCH READING. + + +TO-DAY every one reads. Go where you may, you will find the paper, the +magazine, the journal; printed letters, official reports, exhaustive +cyclopedias, universal histories; the ingenuous advertisement, the +voluminous calendar, the decorated symphony; printed ideals, elaborate +gaming rules, flaming bulletins; and latest of all, we have begun to +publish our communications on the waves of the air. In this hurly-burly +of many books and much reading, it is no mean problem to know why one +should read; and what, and how, and when. Especially does this problem +of general reading confront the student, the lover of books, and +those of the professions. Essays are to be read, the historical, the +philosophical, and the scientific; novels, the historical and the +religious; books of devotion, books of biography, of travel, of +criticism, and of art. What principles are to guide one in his choice of +reading, that he may select only the wisest, purest, and helpfulest from +all these classes of books? + + +WHY READ. + +Read to acquire knowledge. Knowledge is the perception of truth. One +arrives at knowledge by the assimilation of facts and principles, or +by the assimilation of truth itself. Three sources of knowledge are +experience, conversation, and reading. Experience leads one slowly to +knowledge, is limited entirely to the path over which one has passed, +and is a "dear teacher." To acquire knowledge by conversation is to put +one at the mercy of his associates, making him dependent upon their +good favor, truthfulness, and learning. But reading places one in direct +communication with the wisest and best persons of all time. To +acquire knowledge by reading is to defy time and space, persons and +circumstances, at least, in our day of many and inexpensive books. +Through books facts live, principles operate, justice acts, the light of +philosophy gleams, wit flashes, God speaks. Every book-lover agrees with +Channing: "No matter how poor I am..if the sacred writers will enter and +take up their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my threshold +to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakespeare to open to me the words of +imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich +me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual +companionship, and I may become a cultivated man, though excluded from +what is called the best society in the place where I live." Kingsley +says: "Except a living man, there is nothing more wonderful Than a +book!--a message to us from the dead,--from human souls whom we never +saw, who lived, perhaps, thousands of miles away; and yet these, in +those little sheets of paper, speak to us, amuse us, terrify us, teach +us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers..If they are good +and true, whether they are about religion or politics, farming, trade, +or medicine, they are the message of Christ, the Maker of all things, +the Teacher of all truth." The wide range of truth secured through +reading acts in two ways upon the reader. It spiritualizes his +character, and it makes him mighty in action. Knowledge on almost any +subject has a marked tendency to sharpen one's wits, to refine his +tastes, to ennoble his spirit, to improve his judgement, to strengthen +his will, to subdue his baser passions, and to fill his soul with the +breath of life. It is only upon truth that the soul feeds, and by means +of knowledge that the character grows. "It cannot be that people should +grow in grace," writes John Wesley, "unless they give themselves to +reading. A reading people will always be a knowing people." Reading +makes one mighty in action when it gives one knowledge, since "knowledge +is power," and since power has but one way of showing itself, and that +is, in action. Knowledge takes no note of hardships, ignores fatigue, +laughs at disappointment, and frowns upon despair. It delves into the +earth, rides upon the air, defies the cold of the north, the heat of the +south; it stands upon the brink of the spitting volcano, circumnavigates +the globe, examines the heavens, and tries to understand God. With but +few exceptions, master-minds and men of affairs have been incessant +readers. Cicero, chief of Roman orators, whether at home or abroad, in +town or in the country, by day or by night, in youth or in old age, in +sorrow or in joy, was not without his books. "Petrarch, when his friend +the bishop, thinking that he was overworked, took away the key of his +library, was restless and miserable the first day, had a bad headache +the second, and was so ill by the third day that the bishop, in alarm, +returned the key and let his friend read as much as he liked." Writes +Frederick the Great, "My latest passion will be for literature." The +poet, Milton, while a child, read and studied until midnight. John +Ruskin read at four years of age, was a book-worm at five, and wrote +numerous poems and dramas before he was ten. Lord Macaulay read at three +and began a compendium of universal history at seven. Although not a +lover of books, George Washington early read Matthew Hale and became +a master in thought. Benjamin Franklin would sit up all night at his +books. Thomas Jefferson read fifteen hour a day. Patrick Henry read for +employment, and kept store for pastime. Daniel Webster was a devouring +reader, and retained all that he read. At the age of fourteen he could +repeat from memory all of Watt's Hymns and Pope's "Essay on Man." When +but a youth, Henry Clay read books of history and science and practiced +giving their contents before the trees, birds, and horses. Says a +biographer of Lincoln, "A book was almost always his inseparable +companion." + +Then, read for enjoyment. Fortunately, a habit so valuable as reading +may grow to become a pleasure. So that as one is gathering useful +information and increasing in knowledge, he may have the keenest +enjoyment. Such an one sings as he works. He has learned to convert +drudgery into joy; duty has become delight. But even for such an one a +portion of his reading should be purely for rest and recreation. If +one has taught school all day, or set type, or managed a home, or read +history, or labored in the field, or been shopping, heavy, solid reading +may be out of the question, while under such circumstances one would +really enjoy a striking allegory or a well-written novel. Or, if one is +limited in knowledge, or deficient in literary taste so that he may find +no interest in history, science, philosophy, or religion, still he may +enjoy thrilling books of travel, of biography, or of entertaining story. +In this way all may enjoy reading. "Of all the amusements which can +possibly be imagined for a hard-working man, after his daily toil, or +in its intervals, there is nothing," says Herschel, "like reading an +interesting book. It calls for no bodily exercise, of which he has had +enough or too much. It relieves his home of its dullness and sameness, +which, in nine cases out of ten, is what drives him out to the alehouse, +to his own ruin and his family's. It accompanies him to his next day's +work, and, if the book he has been reading be any thing above the very +idlest and lightest, gives him something to think of besides the mere +mechanical drudgery of his every-day occupation, something he can enjoy +while absent, and look forward with pleasure to return to." + + +WHAT TO READ. + +First of all read something. "Southey tells us that, in his walk one +stormy day, he met an old woman, to whom, by way of greeting, he made +the rather obvious remark that it was dreadful weather. She answered, +philosophically, that in her opinion, 'any weather was better than +none.'" And so we would say, excluding corrupt literature, any reading +is better than none! In this day of multiplicity of books who who never +reads may not be an ignoramus nor a fool, but certainly he robs the +world of much that is useful in character, and deprives himself of much +that enriches his own soul. Then one should select his books, as he does +his associates, and not attempt to read everything that comes in his +way. No longer may one know even a little about every thing. It might be +a mark of credit rather than an embarrassment for one to answer, "No," +to the question, "Have you read the latest book?" when the fact is +recalled that 30,000 novels have been published within the past eighty +years, and that five new ones are added to the list daily. + + +READ HISTORY. + +One has characterized history as both the background and the key to +all knowledge. No other class of reading so much as this helps one to +appreciate his own country, his own age, his own surroundings. Extensive +reading of history is a sure remedy for pessimism, prejudice, and +fanaticism. In so far as history is an accurate account of the past, it +is a true prophecy of the future for the nation and for the individual. +Who reads history knows that men always have displayed folly, Weakness, +and cruelty, and that they always will, even to their own obvious ruin. +Also he knows that every time and place have had their few good men and +women who have honored God, and whom God has honored. Nothing so teaches +a person his own insignificance and the small part that he plays in the +world as does the reading of history. Nor is history to be found only in +the book called history. If you want to know the life of the ancients, +as you know the life of your own community, read Josephus. Do you want a +glimpse of early apostolic times, read "The Life and Times of Jesus," by +Edersheim. Do you want to see the battlefield of Waterloo, visit Paris +in the beginning of the nineteenth century, stop over night with Louis +Philippe, see the English through French spectacles, and the Frenchman +through his own; do you want a glimpse of the political despotism, court +intrigue, and ecclesiastical tyranny in France a hundred years ago; do +you want to hear the crash of the bastile, and see Notre Dame converted +into a horse-stable; do you want a picture of the "bread riots" and mob +violence that terminated in the French revolution of 1848; in short +do you want a tale of French life and character in its brightest, +gloomiest, and intensest period, read "Les Miserables," by Victor Hugo. +To-day one must read current history. It is not enough to plan, work, +and economize, one must make and seize opportunities. And this he can +do only as he is alive to passing events. In a few years one may outgrow +his usefulness through losing touch with advancing ideas and methods of +work. To keep abreast of the times one must read the newspaper and the +magazine. The newspaper is the history of the hour, the magazine is the +history of the day. The magazine corrects the newspaper, and "sums up in +clear and noble phrase those fundamental facts which are only dimly seen +in the newspaper." A serious and growing tendency is that the newspaper +and magazine shall take the place of the best books. A few minutes a day +is enough for any newspaper, and a few hours a month is enough for any +magazine. The greatest part of one's reading should be that of books. +Who gormandizes on current events will pay the price with a morbid mind +and with false conclusions in his reasoning. + + +READ BIOGRAPHY. + +The life of a great man is a continual inspiration. No other exercise so +fires a soul with noble ambition as the study of a great life. Real +life is not only stranger than fiction, but it is more interesting than +fiction. No boy should be without the life of Washington, of Lincoln, of +Webster, of Franklin. Every girl should know by heart brave Pocahontas, +sympathetic Mrs. Stowe, queenly Frances Willard, and kind-hearted +Victoria. No private library is complete without Plutarch's "Lives," the +"Life of Alfred the Great," of Napoleon, Grant, and Gladstone. + + +READ SCIENCE. + +The fourteen-year-old child may master the practical principles of +natural philosophy, and yet how many intelligent persons remain ignorant +of the most commonplace truths in this branch of learning! With a little +attention to the natural and mechanical sciences, a new world of beauty +and truth opens up before one. He sees objects that once were hid to +him; he hears sounds that once were silent; he enjoys odors that once +retained their fragrance. His whole being becomes a part of the living +musical world about him, when he has his senses opened to appreciate it +and to become attuned to it. One should read some science throughout his +life, in order to remain at the source of all true knowledge. Here he +learns to appreciate the language of nature. When expressed by man, this +is poetry. + + +THEREFORE, READ POETRY. + +Ten minutes a day with Tennyson, Browning, Emerson, or Lowell, will +teach one a new language, by which he may converse with the wind, talk +with the birds, chat with the brook, speak with the flowers, and hold +discourse with the sun, moon, and stars. The deepest and mightiest +thoughts of all ages have been expressed in poetry, the language of +nature. "Poetry," says Coleridge, "is the blossom and fragrance of all +human knowledge, human thoughts, passions, emotions, languages." + + +READ BOOKS OF RELIGION. + +"Religion," says Lyman Abbott, "is the life of God in the soul." Every +truly religious book treats of this life. The only purely religious book +is the Bible. It is the source and inspiration of every other religious +book. The Bible is a "letter from God to man, handed down from heaven +and written by inspired men." Its message is free salvation for all +men through Jesus Christ; its spirit is divine love. No wise person is +without this letter, and every thoughtful and devout person reads it +daily. One may never find time to follow a course of study, nor to +pursue a plan of daily reading; he may never know the wealth of Dante, +the grandeur of Milton, nor the genius of Shakespeare, but every one may +make the Bible his daily companion and guide. + + +HOW TO READ. + +Enter into what you read. No book can thrill and move one unless he +gives himself up to it. Lack of fixed attention is the cause of the +half-informed mind, the faulty reason, and the ever-failing memory. The +cause of this lack of attention may be an historical allusion of which +one is ignorant, or a new word that he fails to look up, or an overtaxed +mind, or unfavorable surroundings. Whatever may be this hindrance it +must be removed or overcome before one can enter into what he reads. A +thought is of no value until it registers itself and takes a room in the +mind. This is why we are told on every hand, that a few books well +read are worth more than many books poorly read. The secret of Abraham +Lincoln's power as a public speaker lay in his clear reasoning, simple +statement, and apt illustration. This secret was secured by Lincoln +through his habit of mastering whatever he heard in conversation or +reading. "When a mere child," says Lincoln, "I used to get irritated +when anybody talked to me in a way I could not understand. I don't think +I ever got angry at anything else in my life. But that always disturbed +my temper, and has ever since. I can remember going to my little +bedroom, after hearing the neighbors talk of an evening with my father, +and spending no small part of the night walking up and down, trying +to make out what was the exact meaning of some of their, to me, dark +sayings. I could not sleep, though I often tried to, when I got on such +a hunt after an idea, until I had caught it, and when I thought I had +got it, I was not satisfied until I had repeated it over and over; until +I had put it in language plain enough, as I thought, for any boy I knew +to comprehend. This was a kind of passion with me, and it has stuck by +me; for I am never easy now when I am handling a thought until I have +bounded it north, and bounded it south, and bounded it east, and bounded +it west." And so to enter into what one reads, means that he will master +the thought. The most that a university can do for one is to teach him +to read. Who has learned how to read has secured a liberal education, +however or wherever he may have learned it. + +Then, one should learn to scan an author. This means to take a rapid +observation of his thoughts. Much of one's common reading matter should +be scanned. All local news, much magazine literature, and many books +should be used in this way. It is mental sloth and waste of time to pore +over a newspaper or a book of light fiction, as one would a philosophy +of history or a work of science. As Bacon aptly puts it, "Some books +are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and +digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to +be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with +diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and +extracts made of them by others." One's mind is like a horse, it soon +learns its master. Feed it well, groom it well, treat it gently, you may +expect much from it. It is reported of Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis that he +has read a book a day for over twenty years. He has learned to squeeze +the thought out of a book at a grasp, as one of us would squeeze the +juice from an orange. Take a glimpse into his library. Five hundred +volumes of sociological literature, four hundred volumes of history, +two hundred of cyclopedias, gazetteers, books of reference; four hundred +volumes of pure science, one hundred volumes of travels, two hundred and +fifty volumes of biography; one hundred volumes of art and art history; +a section on psychology, ethics, philosophy, and the relation between +science and religion, and a thousand volumes of literature, pure and +simple. + + +WHEN TO READ. + +First, read at regular hours. This is for those who follow literary +pursuits. No professional person should respect himself in his work +who has no special time for reading and study, and who does not +conscientiously adhere to it. The pulpit, the law-office, the doctor's +office, the teacher, and the editor's desk, each clamors for the man, +the woman, who can think. To appreciate God and to sympathize with the +human heart; to know law and the intricate special case; to understand +disease and relief for the suffering patient; to have something to teach +and to know how to teach it even to the dullest pupil; to know human +character and to be able to enlighten the public mind and the public +conscience; all this requires in the one who serves a deep and growing +knowledge and experience which may be realized only in the grasp of +truth contained in the up-to-date and best authorized books. The use +of books with this class of persons is not optional. They must buy and +master them, or a few years at longest will relegate them with their old +books and ideas to the dusty garret where they belong. + +Then, many must read on economized time. The farmer, the mechanic, the +merchant, the shopkeeper, each may find a little time for daily reading. +Ten minutes saved in the morning, ten minutes in the afternoon, and ten +minutes in the evening, this is half hour a day. In a week this gives +one three hours and a half, in a month fourteen hours of solid reading, +and in a year one will have read seven days of twenty-four hours each. +Think of what may be accomplished in an average lifetime in common +reading by the busiest person, who really wants to read. "Schliemann," +the noted German scholar and author, "as a boy, standing in line at the +post-office waiting his turn for the mail, utilized the time by studying +Greek from a little pocket grammar." "Mary Somerfield, the astronomer, +while busy with her children in the nursery, wrote her 'Mechanism of the +Heavens,' without neglecting her duties as a mother." "Julius Caesar, +while a military officer and politician found time to write his +Commentaries known throughout the world." William Cobbett says: "I +learned grammar when I was a private soldier on a six-pence a day. +The edge of my guard-bed was my seat to study in, my knapsack was my +bookcase, and a board lying on my lap was my desk. I had no moment at +that time that I could call my own; and I had to read and write among +the talking, singing, whistling, and bawling of at least half a score +of the most thoughtless of men." Among those whom we all know who have +risen out of obscurity to eminence through a wise economy of time which +they have used in reading and study, are, Patrick Henry, Benjamin +West, Eli Whitney, James Watt, Richard Baxter, Roger Sherman, Sir Isaac +Newton, and Benjamin Franklin. + + + + +VII. SOCIAL RECREATION. + +DEFINED. + + +The normal young person who does not dissipate is bursting with life. +The natural child is activity embodied. The healthful old person craves +exercise. Life, activity, exercise, each must have some method of +spending itself. Some normal method, some right method, some attractive +method must be chosen. By normal method we mean that which calls into +use the varied faculties and powers of the entire being, body, mind, and +heart. By right method we mean that which does not crush out a part of +one's being, while another part is being developed. By attractive method +in the use of life, activity, exercise, we mean that which appeals to +one's peculiar desires, tastes, and circumstances, so long as these are +normal and right. Some chosen profession, trade, or work is the rightful +heritage of every person. Each man, woman, and child should know when +he gets up of a morning, what his work is for that day. Consciously, or +unconsciously, he should have some outline of work, some end in view, +some goal toward which he is stretching himself. Dr. J. M. Buckley asks: +"Have you a purpose and a plan?" And answers, "Life is worth nothing +till then." The child is in the hands of his parent, his teacher, his +guardian. These must answer to Destiny for his beginning and growth. +"Satan finds something for idle hands to do." Hence the necessity of +vigilance on the part of those who hold the young. But "all work and no +play, makes Jack a dull boy." This rule is good whether "Jack" be a +puny girl, a feeble grandfather, a hustling, responsible father, a busy +mother, or even a mischievous lad. Every person who rises each morning, +dresses himself and goes about his work as if he knew what he were +about; who has some useful work to do, and does it, sooner or later, +needs rest. True, night comes and one may rest. And sweet is the rest of +sleep; a third of one's life is passed in this way. Sancho Panza has it +right when he says: + +"Now blessing light on him that first invented sleep! It covers a man +all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, +drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot." But +one craves a recreation, a rest which work nor sleep can give. Man has +a social nature, a longing to mingle with his acquaintances and friends. +Let one be shut in with work, or sickness, or weather, for whole days +at a time, and see how hungry he gets to see some one. A recreation at +a social gathering literally makes a new being out of him. He is +recreated. It is this form of recreation that we consider here, social +recreation. + + +A NECESSITY. + +Social recreation is a necessity in a well-ordered life. As with many +other common blessings we forget its benefits. Nor are these benefits +so evident until we see the blighting result in the life of the one who, +for any reason whatsoever, has become a social recluse. We have known +a few persons who have once been in society, but who have allowed +themselves to remain away from all sorts of gatherings, for a number of +years. In every case, the result has been openly noticeable. They have +become boorish in manners, unsympathetic in nature, and suspicious in +spirit. Thus they have grown out of harmony with the ideas and ways of +those about them, have come to take distorted and erroneous views of +affairs and of men. Man is a composite being. Many factors enter into +his make-up. He lives not only in the physical and intellectual, in the +religious and social, in a local and limited sense, but his life expands +until it touches and molds many other characters and communities besides +his own. In all of these spheres of his influence and work on needs to +be sobered down, corrected, stimulated. In no other way is this better +accomplished than through one's very contact with his fellows in the +religious gathering, among his workmen, in the political meeting, at the +assembly, in the social gathering whenever and wherever persons may see +one another and talk over common interests. + +A SPECIFIC SENSE. + +In a specific sense, by social recreation, we mean those pastimes and +pleasures which all persons, except the social recluse, enjoy as they +meet to spend an afternoon or an evening together. Now, how may we +get the largest amount of pleasure, of rest, of recreation from such +gatherings? How may we best benefit ourselves, inspire one another, and +in it all, honor God? It is no small task to accomplish these three ends +in all things, in one's life. We have agreed that some social practices +are positively bad. And we have tried to show why the "tobacco club," +the "social glass," the "card-party," the "dancing-party," and the +play-house reveries should be avoided. We have left these forms of +so-called "questionable amusements" out of our practice and let our of +our lives. To what may we turn? Where may we go? We turn to the social +gathering. + + +BUT IT MUST BE PLANNED. + +No social gathering can successfully run itself. See what forethought +and expenditure are given to make successful the "smoking-club," the +"wine-social," the "card and dancing parties," and the "theater." Not +one of these institutions thrive without thought and cost in their +management. Put the same thought and expense into the gathering +for social recreation, and you will find all of the merits of the +questionable institution and none of its demerits. No company has larger +capabilities than the mixed company at the social gathering. Nor may +any purpose be more perfectly served than the purpose of true social +recreation. Here we find those skilled in music, versed in literature, +adept at conversation; we find the practical joker, the proficient +at games, and last, but not least, those "born to serve" tables. This +variety of genius, of wit, of skill, of willingness to serve, is laid +at the altar of pleasure for the worthy purpose of making new again +the weary body, the languishing spirit, the lonely heart. Let the right +management and stimulus be given to this resourceful company, and the +hours will pass as moments, the surest sign of a good time. + + +SOME ESSENTIALS. + +DINING, SOCIAL HOUR, GAMES. + +No social recreation is complete without dining. And yet the least +important part of this meal should be the taking of food. It is a +serious fault with the modern social that too much attention is given to +the variety and quantity of food, and not enough to merriment in taking +it. To be successful, the social company should gather as early as +possible; the first hour-and-a-half should be given to greetings and to +social levity of the brightest and wittiest sort. If one has an ache or +a pain, a care or a loss, let it be forgotten now. It is weakness and +folly continually to be under any burden. Here every one should take +a genuine release from seriousness and earnestness in weighty and +responsible affairs. Let all, except the serving committee for this +evening, take part in this strictly social hour-and-a-half. When the +late-comers have arrived and have been introduced, and the people have +moved about and met one another, almost before the company are aware of +it they are invited by the serving committee to dine. Usually all may +not be served at once. Now that the company has been thinned out, the +older persons having gone to the tables, short, spirited games should +be introduced in which every person not at luncheon, should be given +a place and a part. At this juncture it is not best to introduce +sitting-games, such as checkers, authors, caroms, or flinch, for the +contestants might be called to take refreshments at a critical moment +in the contest. With a little attention to it, appropriate games may +be introduced here that need not interfere with luncheon. Fully half an +hour should be spent at each set of tables, where at the close of +the meal, some humorous subject or subjects should be introduced and +responded to be those best fitted for such a task. Almost any person +can say something bright as well as sensible, if he will give a little +attention to it beforehand. While the second and third tables are being +served, let those retiring contest at games of skill, converse, or take +up other appropriate entertainment directed by the everywhere present +entertainment committee. By this time half-past ten or eleven o'clock, +some who are old, or who have pressing duties on the next day may want +to retire. If the serving committee have been skillful in adjusting +the time spent at each table to the number of tables, etc., by eleven +o'clock the serving shall have been completed. Now, the young in spirit, +whether old or young, expect, and should have an hour at the +newest, liveliest, and most recreative games. No part of the evening +entertainment should be allowed to drag. To insure this a frequent +change of social games is needed. + + +AVOID LATE HOURS. + +As late hours tend to produce irregularity in sleep, in meals, and in +work; and since the object of the social is recreation, the company +should retire about midnight. Oftentimes people stay and stay at such a +gathering, until the hostess, the entertaining committee, and the people +themselves are worn out. And yet, who is at fault? This is a critical +point in the modern popular social. How shall the company disband in due +season? In his "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," Oliver Wendell Holmes +gives a suggestion on this point for the private visitor, who does not +know how to go. Says Holmes: "Do n't you know how hard it is for some +people to get out of a room when their visit is really over? They want +to be off, and you want to have them off, but they do n't know how to +manage it. One would think they had been built in your parlor or study +and were waiting to be launched. I have contrived a sort of ceremonial +inclined plane for such visitors, which being lubricated with +certain smooth phrases, I back them down, metaphorically speaking, +stern-foremost, into their 'native element,' the great ocean of +outdoors." There are social companies as hard to get rid of as this. +They want to go, and every one wants them to go, but just how to make +the start, no one seems to know. Dr. Holmes and his "inclined plane" +may have been successful with the private caller, but who will be the +"contriver of a ceremonial," one sufficient to land the social company +into its "native element, the great ocean of outdoors?" No, this most +delicate of the problems involved in a successful modern social must be +left to a tactful hint from the entertainment committee, and to the wise +choice of a few recognized leaders in the company. + + +NEW COMMITTEES. + +Special committees should have charge of the serving and of the +entertainment. As far as possible these should vary with each successive +social. It is an erroneous notion, prevalent in nearly every community, +that only "certain ones" can do this or that; the consequence is that +these "certain ones" do all the work, are deprived of the true rest and +relief which the social is meant to give, while others who should +take their turn, grow unappreciative, and weak in their serving and +entertaining ability. + + +THE AVERAGE SOCIAL A FAILURE. + +As it is conducted to-day, the average social is a failure. Late at +arriving, want of introductions, lack of arranged entertainment, late +hours,--all go to weaken and to dull the average young person in place +of to cultivate his wits, his special genius at music, reading, and +conversation, and to recreate him in body, mind, and spirit. To make a +success of the social gathering some one must keep in mind the personal +convenience and happiness of every person present. When this is done +and the social gathering becomes notable for the real pleasure that it +gives, then we shall be able to drive out the "questionable amusements," +because we have taken nothing from the person, and have given him new +life and interest. + + + + +VIII. FRIENDSHIP. + +BONDS OF ATTACHMENT. + + +Each person is connected with every other person by some bond of +attachment. It may be by the steel bond of brotherhood, by the silvern +chain of religious fellowship, by the golden band of conjugal affection, +by the flaxen cord of parental or filial love, or by the silken tie of +friendship. One or more of these bonds of attachment may encircle +each person, and each bond has its varying strength, and is capable of +endless lengthening and contracting. Brotherhood is a general term, and +as it is used here, comprises the fellow-feeling that one human being +has for another, this is universal brotherhood. Brotherhood comprises +the fellow-feeling that attracts persons of the same race, nation, or +community, this is racial, national, or community brotherhood; also, +it comprises the fellow-feeling that exists between persons of the same +avocation, calling, or work, this is the brotherhood of profession; it +comprises the fellow-feeling that joins persons of the same order or +party, this is the brotherhood of order; it comprises the fellow-feeling +that joins brothers and sisters of the same home, this is the +brotherhood of family. Religious fellowship includes that spiritual +intercourse which is held between persons of the same religious faith +and practice. Conjugal affection comprises that feeling of mind and +heart which unites husband and wife. Filial and parental love exists +between parent and child. While friendship comprises that soul union +which exists between persons because of similar desires, tastes, and +sentiments. Each of these bonds of attachment has its characteristic +mark, its essential feature. The essential feature of universal +brotherhood is common origin, present struggle, and future hope; the +essential feature of racial, national, or community brotherhood is +patriotism; the essential feature of brotherhood of the order is mutual +helpfulness; the essential feature in brotherhood of the profession +is common pursuit; in brotherhood of the family, common parentage; in +conjugal affection, attraction for opposite sex; in parental and filial +love, love of offspring and love of parent; while in friendship the +essential feature is harmony of natures. + + +WHAT IS FRIENDSHIP? + +No human relationship can be more beautiful, nor more abiding than true +friendship. It is a spiritual thing, a communion of souls, virtuously +exercised. How one is impressed and pleased to see another horse just +like his own, to see another dog exactly resembling his own, to meet a +person who speaks, looks, and acts like some one he has known. It is +a surprise, mingled with mystery and delight. But with what increased +surprise and delight does one meet with a "person after his own heart." +All men have recognized the strength and beauty of right self-love. +The second great law of Christ's kingdom is declared in terms of true +self-love. "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Every one loves himself, +because one's self is the truest and best of other lives filtered +through his own soul. When one finds in another that which perfectly +answers to his own soul-likings and longings, he has found another +self, he has found a friend. Friendship is the communion of such souls, +although they may be absent from one another. The highest friendship may +grow more perfectly when friends are separated, then it is unmixed with +the alloy of imperfect thought and action. Then it is nourished by +the past, for only the past buries all faults; it is encouraged by the +future, for only the future veils the awkwardness and shortcomings of +the present. The character of friendship is determined by the character +of friends. Negative personalities wanting in taste, conviction, and +virtue produce only a negative friendship. Intense personalities +produce intense friendships; noble personalities, noble friendships, and +spiritual personalities, spiritual friendship. In the true, spiritual +sense, before one can become a friend, he must become an individual. He +must stand for something in thought and purpose. If this is not true, +friendship becomes a flimsy affair. For souls to commune with one +another there must be harmony; unity, agreement of desires, sentiments, +and tastes. Not the harmony of indifference, nor a forced agreement, +but a beautiful and natural response of soul to soul. Such equipment for +friendship finds its basis only in individual character. Character is +conduct become habitual. If one spurns reason, and follows his impulse +and passion, he becomes unreliable, and does not know the issues of his +own heart and life. Who knows what such an one will do next? To make it +soar well or sail well, friendship must have ballast. This ballast is +worthy, individual character. It would be more exact to say there can be +no true friendship without individual character. Although many elements +constitute the character of the true friend, yet two elements are +essential--sincerity and tenderness. Sincerity is the soul of every +virtue, while true words, simple manners, and right actions make up the +body. If the soul of virtue is present one does not always demand the +presence of the body, but if the body of virtue is absent, one had +better take a search after the soul. If sincerity is unquestioned, +words, manners, actions have great liberty; but if words, manners and +actions are lacking in straight-forwardness, it is time to question +sincerity. This is true in all human affairs involving motive and +conduct. Especially is it true in friendship. Sincerity knows its own. +By a glance it penetrates the very heart of its true friend, and leaves +translucent and transparent its own. Sincerity gives steadfastness and +constancy to friendship. Insincerity mars and breaks friendship. Who +has not seen a soul spring into life through the love of a radiant +friendship; and then following a series of hollow pretenses, +insincerities, that friendship fails, and the beautiful creature +stifles and dies. As one tells us, "such a death is frightful, it is the +asphyxia of the soul!" Then, tenderness is an essential element in +the character of a friend. Says Emerson: "Notwithstanding all the +selfishness that chills like east winds the world, the whole human +family is bathed with an element of love, like a fine ether." With +Emerson, we believe that every person carries about with him a certain +circle of sympathy within which he, and at least one friend, may temper +and sweeten life. Much of the kindness of the world is simply breathed, +and yet what an aroma of good cheer it sheds in grateful lives. +Tenderness possesses a sensitiveness of sympathy to an extreme +degree. It shrinks from the sight of suffering. It treats others +with "gentleness, delicacy, thought-fulness, and care. It enters into +feelings, anticipates wants, supplies the smallest pleasure, and studies +every comfort." Says one: "It belongs to natures, refined as well as +loving, and possesses that consideration of which finer dispositions +only are capable." Tenderness is a heart quality. It is the luxury of a +pure and intense friendship. It tempers one's entire nature, making +his whole being sympathetic with grace and favor. It is manifest in the +relaxing feature, in the penetrating glance, in the mellowing voice, +in the engracing manners, and in the complete obliteration of time and +distance, while with one's friend. We recall the friendly visits spend +with our friend, Lawrence W. Rowell, during his medical course in +Rush College, Chicago, while we were in attendance at the Northwestern +University, in Evanston, Illinois. Rowell was intellectual, spirited, +gifted in conversation, highly sympathetic, informed, critical, yet +charitable, a close student of human nature, a love of philosophy, of +musical temperament, of noble heart, of exalted purpose. Our visits were +kept up bimonthly throughout one year. We would spent Saturday evening +and Sunday together. Those visits revealed to me the magnetism, +intensity, and tenderness of a friend. Truly, with us time and distance +were almost completely obliterated from our consciousness. I say +distance, for we would walk together. Tenderness suits the amiable +and gentle in disposition, but it comes with a peculiar charm from +the austere nature. It is one of the stalwart virtues, and is often +concealed behind a crusty exterior. Severity and tenderness adorn the +greatest lives. + + +THE TEST OF FRIENDSHIP. + +What is the uncertain mark of a friend? Have I a friend? How many +friends have I? I can invoice my stock, my goods, my land, my money, +can I invoice my friends? One may not always know the actual worth of a +friend, but he knows who are his friends, quite as well as he knows +who are his nephews and cousins. "A friend is one whom you need and who +needs you." Has one a bit of good news, he flies to his friend, he wants +to share it. Has one a sorrow, he seeks his friend who will gladly share +that. Does one meet with a defeat or victory, instantly he thinks of his +friend and of how it will effect him. Friends need one another, as truly +as the child needs its mother, or the mother her child. Is one tempted +to commit a wrong in thought or action, his friend, though absent, +appears at his side and begs him not to do it. If one is in doubt or +uncertainty, he summons his friend, who become a patient reasoner, and +an impartial judge. Who does not find himself, daily, looking through +other people's glasses, weighing on other people's scales, sounding +other people's voices? It is a habit that friends have with one another. +You can not deprive friends of one another, any more than you can +lovers. Ah, true friends are lovers of the heaven-born sort; for +their agreement is grounded in nature. They are not chosen, they are +discovered. Or, as Emerson says, they are "self-elected." + + "Friendship's an abstract of love's noble flame, + 'Tis love refined, and purged from all its dross, + 'Tis next to angel's love, if not the same, + As strong as passion in, though not so gross." + +Thus writes Catherine Phillips. + + +FRUITS OF FRIENDSHIP. + +True friendship gives ease to the heart, light to the mind, and aid to +the carrying out of one's life-purposes. First, ease to the heart. The +presence of a friend is a beam of genial sunshine which lights up the +house by his very appearance. He warms the atmosphere and dispels the +gloom. The presence of a true friend for a day, a night, a week, lifts +one out of himself, links him with new purposes, and immerses him in +new joys. Friends breathe free with one another. They inspire sighs of +relief. Embarrassment disappears; liberty reigns supreme. Hearts are +like steam boilers, occasionally, they must give vent to what is in +them, or they will burst. This is the true mission of friends, to +become to one another reserve reservoirs of "griefs, joys, fears, hopes, +suspicions, counsels, and whatever lieth upon the heart to oppress +it," or elate it. You recall those familiar lines of Bacon: "This +communicating of a man's self to his friends works two contrary effects; +for it redoubles joys and cutteth griefs in halves; for there is no man +that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more; and no +man that imparteth his griefs to his friends, but he grieveth the less." +The following selected lines, slightly changed, set forth this first +fruit of friendship. + + "A true friend is an atmosphere + Warm with all inspirations dear, + Wherein we breathe the large free breath + Of life that hath no taint of death. + A true friend's an unconscious part + Of every true beat of our heart; + A strength, a growth, whence we derive + Soul-rest, that keeps the world alive." + +Then, friendship sheds light in the mind. "He who has made the +acquisition of a judicious and sympathetic friend," says Robert Hall, +"may be said to have doubled his mental resources." No man is wise +enough to be his own counselor, for he inclineth too much to leniency +toward himself. "It is a well-known rule that flattery is food for the +fool." Therefore no man should be his own counselor since no one is +so apt to flatter another as he is himself. A wise man never flatters +himself, neither does a friend flatter. As a wise man sees his own +faults and seeks to correct them, so a true friend sees the faults of +his friend and labors faithfully to banish them. The one who flatters +you despises you, and degrades both you and himself. An enemy will tell +you the whole truth about yourself, especially your faults, and at times +that both weaken and hurt you. A friend will tell you the whole truth +about yourself, especially your neglected virtues, but at a time to both +strengthen and help you. The highest service a friend can render is that +of giving counsel. The highest honor one can bestow upon his friend +is to make him his counselor. It is no mark of weakness to rely upon +counsel. God, Himself, needed a counselor, so he chose His Son. +"His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the +Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Isa. ix, 6. Counsel, says +Solomon, is the key to stability. "Every purpose is established by +Counsel." Prov. Xx, 18. Who despiseth counsel shall reap the reward +of folly. A friend is safe in counsel, according to his wisdom, for he +never seeks his own good, but the good of his friend. It is a saying, +"If some one asks you for advice, if you would be followed, first find +out what kind of advice is wanted, then give that." But this is not the +way of a friend. He has in mind the welfare of the friend and the cause +his friend serves. Honor does not require that one shall follow the +advise of his friend, rather liberty in this is a mark of freedom and +trust between friends. + +A friend aids one in the carrying out of his life purposes. Who is it +that helps one to places of honor and usefulness? It is his friend. Who +is it that recognizes one's true worth, extols his virtues, and gives +tone and quality to the diligent services of months and years? It is his +friend. Who is it, when one ends his life in the midst of an unfinished +book, or with loose ends of continued research in philosophy or science +all about him; who is it that gathers up these loose ends and puts in +order the unfinished work? It is his friend. Who is it that stands by +the open tomb of that fallen saint or hero and relates to the world his +deeds of sacrifice and courage which spurn others on to nobler living +and thereby perpetuates his goodness and valor? Who does this, if it is +done? It is his friend. A friend thus becomes not only a completion of +one's soul as he is by virtue of being a friend, but also he becomes +a completion of one's life. Then, one's relation to his fellowmen is +a limited relationship. He may speak, but upon certain subjects, on +certain occasions, and to certain persons. As Francis Bacon says, "A man +can not speak to his son but as a father; to his wife but as a husband; +to his enemy but upon terms; whereas a friend may speak as the case +requires, and not as it sorteth with the person....I have given the +rule," says he, "where a man can not fitly play his own part, if he have +not a friend, he may quit the stage." + + +HOW TO GET AND KEEP A FRIEND. + +A real friend is discovered, or made. First, discovered. Two persons +notice an attraction for one another. They see that their desires are +similar, they have the same sentiments, they agree in tastes. A feeling +of attachment becomes conscious with each of them, slight association +fosters this feeling, it increases. New associations but reveal a +broader agreement, a closer union, a perfecter harmony. The signs of +friendship appear. Heart and mind of each respond to the other, they are +friends. This is the noblest friendship. It has its origin in nature. +It is, as H. Clay Trumbull says: "Love without compact or condition; +it never pivots on an equivalent return of service or of affection. Its +whole sweep is away from self and toward the loved one. Its desire is +for the friend's welfare; its joy is in the friend's prosperity; its +sorrows and trials are in the friend's misfortunes and griefs; its pride +is in the friend's attainments and successes; its constant purpose is in +doing and enduring for the friend." + +Then, friends are made. Two persons do not especially attract one +another. But, through growth of character, modification of nature, or +change in desires, sentiments, and tastes, they become attracted to each +other. Or in spite of natural disagreements or differences, through +the force of circumstances they become welded together in friendship. +Montaigne describes such an attachment, in which the souls mix and work +themselves into one piece with so perfect a mixture that there is no +more sign of a seam by which they were first conjoined. Says Euripedes: + + "A friend + Wedded into our life is more to us + Than twice five thousand kinsman one in blood." + +Such was the friendship of Ruth and Naomi. Orpha loved Naomi, kissed +her, and returned satisfied to her early home; but Ruth cleaved unto +her, saying: + + "Entreat me not to leave thee, + And to return from following after thee: + For whither thou goest, I will go; + Where thou lodgest, I will lodge: + Thy people shall be my people, + And thy God my God: + Where thou diest, will I die, + And there will I be buried: + The Lord do so to me, and more also, + If aught but death part thee and me." + +The keeping of a friend like the keeping of a fortune, lies in the +getting, although in friendship much depends upon circumstances of +association. However subtle may be the circumstances which bring friends +together, or whatever natural agreement may exist between their natures, +still there is always a conscious choosing of friends. In this choosing +lies the secret of abiding friendship. Young says: + + "First on thy friend deliberate with thyself; + Pause, ponder, sift: not eager in the choice, + Nor jealous of the chosen; fixing fix; + Judge before friendship, then confide till death." + +Steadfastness and constancy such as this seldom loses a friend. + +Last of all, abiding friendship is grounded in virtue. Says a famed +writer on Friendship: "There is a pernicious error in those who think +that a free indulgence in all lusts and sins is extended in friendship. +Friendship was given us by nature as the handmaid of virtues and not as +the companion of our vices. It is virtue, virtue I say... that both wins +friendship and preserves it." And closing his remarks on this immortal +subject, Cicero causes Laelius to say: "I exhort you to lay the +foundations of virtue, without which friendship can not exist, in such +a manner, that with this one exception, you may consider that nothing in +the world is more excellent than friendship." + + + + +IX. TRAVEL. A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. + + +We have set in order some facts, incidents, and lessons gathered from a +hasty trip to the old country during the summer of 1899. The journey was +made in company with Rev. C.F. Juvinall, for four years my room-mate +and fellow-student, and my estimable friend. On Wednesday, June 21st, we +sailed from Boston Harbor; reached Liverpool, England, Saturday morning +the 1st of July; visited this second town in the British kingdom; +stopped over at the old town of Chester; took a run out to Hawarden +Estate, the home of Gladstone; changed cars at Stratford-on-Avon and +visited the tomb of Shakespeare; staid a half day and a night in the +old university town of Oxford, and reached London on the evening of July +4th. Having spent a week in London, we crossed the English Channel +to Paris; remained there two days, then made brief visits to the +battlefield of Waterloo, to Brussels, Amsterdam, Hull, Sheffield, +Dublin, and back to Liverpool. We sailed to Boston and returned +to Chicago by way of Montreal and Detroit, having spent forty-nine +days--the intensest and delightfullest of our lives. At first, we +hesitated to treat this subject from a point of view of personal +experience, but since it is our purpose to incite in others the love +for and the right us of all helpful resources of happiness and power, it +seemed to us that we could no better accomplish our purpose with respect +to this subject than to recount our own observations from this one +limited, imperfect journey. + + +AN EYE-OPEN AND EAR-OPEN EXPERIENCE. + +One is always at a disadvantage in relating the faults of others, for he +seems to himself and to his friends to be telling his own experience. +We were about to speak of the superficial way in which Americans travel. +One who has traveled much says that "the average company of American +tourists goes through the Art Galleries of Europe like a drove of cattle +through the lanes of a stock-market." Nor is it the art gallery and +museum alone that is done superficially. How many persons before +entering grand old Notre Dame, or the British Houses of Parliament, +pause to admire the elaborate and expansive beauty of the great archways +and outer walls? It is possible to live in this world, to travel around +it, to touch at every great port and city, and yet fail to see what is +of value or of interest. A man on our boat going to Liverpool, said that +he had traveled over the world, had been in London many a time, but had +not taken the pains to go into St. Paul's, nor to visit the Tower of +London. A wise man, a seer, is one who sees. It is possible to live in +this world, and not to leave one's own dooryard, and yet to possess the +knowledge of the world, and to tell others how to see. Louis Agassiz, +the scientist, was invited by a friend to spend the summer with him +abroad. Mr. Agassiz declined the gracious offer on the ground that he +had just Planned a summer's tour through his own back yard. What +did Agassiz find on that tour? Instruction for the children of many +generations, a treatise on animal life, and later a text-book of +Zoology. Kant, the philosopher, the greatest mind since Socrates, was +never forty miles from his birthplace. On the other hand, Grant Allen, +author, scholar, and traveler, says: "One year in the great university +we call Europe, will teach one more than three at Yale or Columbia. And +what it teaches one will be real, vivid, practical, abiding... ingrained +in the very fiber of one's brain and thought.... He will read deeper +meaning thenceforward in every picture, every building, every book, +every newspaper.... If you want to know the origin of the art of +building, the art of painting, the art of sculpture, as you find them +to-day in contemporary America, you must look them up in the churches, +and the galleries of early Europe. If you want to know the origin of +American institutions, American law, American thought, and American +language, you must go to England; you must go farther still to France, +Italy, Hellas, and the Orient. Our whole life is bound up with Greece +and Rome, with Egypt and Assyria." But whatever advantage travel may +afford for broad and intense study, whatever be its superior processes +of refinement and learning, yet it is well to remember this, that at any +place and at any time one may open his eyes and his ears, his heart and +his reason, and find more than he is able to understand and a heart to +feel! You can not limit God to the land nor to the sea, to one country +nor to one hemisphere. Thus the kind of travel of which we speak is the +eye-open and ear-open sort. + +Let us note first, then, that travel is a study of history at the spot +where the event took place. The history of a nation is a record of its +great men. You tell a faithful story of Columbus, John Cabot, and Henry +Hudson; of Winthrop, John Smith, and Melendez; of General Wolfe, General +Washington, Patrick Henry, and Franklin; of Jefferson, Adams, Jackson, +and Webster; of Abraham Lincoln, Wendell Phillips, John Brown, and +General Grant; of John Sherman, Grover Cleveland, and William +McKinley, and you an up-to-date history of the young American Republic, +acknowledged by every country to have the greatest future of all +nations. So, if one reads with understanding the inscriptions on the +monuments of Gough, O'Connell, and Parnell, he will get the story of the +struggles of the Irish. Enter London Tower, "the most historical spot in +England," and recount the bloody tragedies of the English people since +the time of William the Conqueror, 1066 A.D. Here we have a "series of +equestrian figures in full equipment, as well as many figures on foot, +affording a faithful picture, in approximate chronological order, of +English war-array from the time of Edward I, 1272, down to that of James +II, 1688." In glass cases, and in forms of trophies on the walls, we +find arms and armor of the old Romans, of the early Greeks, and Britons, +and of the Anglo-Saxons. Maces and axes, long and cross bows and leaden +missile weapons and shields, highly adorned with metal figures, all tend +to make more vivid the word-pictures of the historian. Of the small +burial-ground in this Tower, Macaulay writes: "In truth there is +no sadder spot on earth than this little cemetery. Death is there +associated, not, as in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's, with genius and +virtue, with public veneration, and with imperishable renown; not, as +in our humblest churches and church-yards, with every thing that is most +endearing in social and domestic charities; but with whatever is +darkest in human nature and in human destiny, with the savage triumph of +implacable enemies, with the inconstancy, the ingratitude, the cowardice +of friends, with all the miseries of fallen greatness and of blighted +fame." We note a few names chiseled here: Sir Thomas More, beheaded +1535; Anne Boleyn, beheaded in this tower, 1536; Thomas Cromwell, +beheaded, 1540; Margaret Pole, beheaded here, 1541; Queen Catharine +Howard, beheaded, 1542; Lady Jane Grey and her husband, beheaded here, +1544; Sir Thomas Overbudy, poisoned in this tower, 1613. Since travel is +a study of history at the spot where the event took place, let us cross +the rough and famed English Channel to visit one of the many noted spots +of France. We select the site of the Hotel de Ville or the town-hall of +Paris. "The construction of the old hall was begun in 1533, and was over +seventy years in its completion. Additions were made, and the building +was reconstructed in 1841. This has been the usual rallying site of +the Democratic party for centuries. Here occurred the tragedy of St. +Bartholomew in 1572; here mob-posts, gallows, and guillotines did the +work of a despotic misrule until 1789. (As we left for Brussels on the +evening of the 13th of July, all Paris was gayly decorated with red, +white, and blue bunting, ready to celebrate the event of July 14, 1789, +the fall of the Bastile.) On this date, 110 years ago, the captors of +the Bastile marched into this noted hall. Three days later Louis XVI +came here in procession from Versailles, followed by a dense mob." Here +Robespierre attempted suicide to avoid arrest, when five battalions +under Barras forced entrance to assault the Commune party, of which +Robespierre was head. Here, in 1848, Louis Blanc proclaimed the +institution of the Republic of France. This was a central spot during +the revolution of 1871. The leaders of the Commune party place in this +building barrels of gunpowder, and heaps of combustibles steeped in +petroleum, and on May 25th they succeeded in destroying with it 600 +human lives. A new Hotel de Ville, one of the most magnificent buildings +in Europe, has replaced the old hall. This is open to visitors at all +hours. To study history at the spot where the event took place means +work as well as pleasure, so we took our luncheon and sleep in our car +while the train carried us to Brussels, and out to Braine-l'Alleud, +where, on the beautiful rolling plain of Belgium, June 18, 1805, +Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo, and Wellington became England's +idol. + +A railway baggageman was on our train returning to his home in +Cleveland, Ohio. In conversation, he said: "I have been with this +company for twenty-two years; have drawn two dollars a day, 365 days in +the year for that time, and I haven't a dollar in the world, but one, +and I gave it yesterday for a dog. But," said he, "I have a good woman +and the greatest little girl in the world, so I am happy." This is one +of a large class of persons who receive fair wages all their lives, and +yet die paupers, because they plan to spend all they make as they go +along. In conversation with a gruff, old Dutch conductor between Albany +and New York City, I ventured to ask him if he had ever crossed the +ocean. "No," he said, "nopody eber crosses de ocean, bud emigrants, and +beoble vat hab more muney dan prains." + +Travel is a study of religious institutions. Among the most interesting +in Europe, that we visited, are Wesley's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, St. +Paul's Cathedral, and Notre Dame. The Church of Notre Dame, situated +in the heart of Paris on the bank of the Seine, was founded 1163 on the +site of a church of the fourth century. The building has been altered a +number of times. In 1793 it was converted into a temple of reason. +The statue of the Virgin Mary was replaced by one of Liberty. Busts of +Robespierre, Voltaire, and Rosseau were erected. This church was closed +to worship 1794, but was reopened by Napoleon 1802. It was desecrated by +the Communards 1811, when the building was used as a military depot. The +large nave, 417 feet long, 156 feet wide, and 110 feet high, is the +most interesting portion of this massive structure. The vaulting of this +great nave is supported by seventy-five huge pillars. The pulpit is a +masterpiece of modern wood-carving. The choir and sanctuary are set off +by costly railings, and are beautifully adorned by reliefs in wood and +stone. The organ, with 6,000 pipes, is one of the finest in Europe. "The +choir has a reputation for plain song." On a small elevation, in the +center of London, stand the Cathedral of St. Paul's, the most prominent +building in the city. From remains found here it is believed that a +Christian Church occupied this spot in the times of the Romans, and that +it was rebuilt by King Ethelbert, 610 A.D. Three hundred years later +this building was burned, but soon it was rebuilt. Again it was +destroyed by fire, 1087, and a new edifice begun which was 200 years in +completion. This church, old St. Paul's, was 590 feet long, and had +a leaden-covered, timber spire, 460 feet high. In 1445 this spire was +injured by lightning, and in 1561 the building was again burned. +Says Mr. Baedeker, whose guidebook is indispensable in the hands of a +traveler, "Near the cathedral stood the celebrated Cross of St. Paul, +where sermons were preached, papal bulls promulgated, heretics made to +recant, and witches to confess, and where the pope's condemnation of +Luther was proclaimed in the presence of Woolsey." Here is the burial +place of a long list of noted persons. Here occurred Wyckiff's citation +for heresy, 1337; and here Tyndale's New Testament was burned, 1527. It +was opened for divine services, 1697, and was completed after thirteen +years of steady work, at a cost of three and a half millions of dollars. +This sum was raised by a tax on coal. The church is in the form of a +Latin cross, 500 feet long, with the transept 250 feet in length. "The +inner dome is 225 feet high, the outer, from the pavement to the top of +the cross, is 364 feet. The dome is 102 feet in diameter, thirty-seven +feet less than St. Peter's. St. Paul's is the third largest church +in Christendom, being surpassed only by St. Peter's at Rome." Three +services are held here daily. The religion of Notre Dame is Roman +Catholic, but that of St. Paul's and Westminster is of the Church of +England. What shall we say of Westminster Abbey, the most impressive +place of all our travel! As my friend and I entered here and took +our seats for divine worship, preparatory to visiting her halls, and +chapels, and tombs, I think I was never more deeply impressed. I said to +myself, "What does God mean to allow me to worship here?" and I seemed +to realize how little my past life had been. I felt that circumstances +and not I myself had thrust this new privilege, and thereby new +responsibility, upon me. Westminster Abbey! A church for the living, +a burial-place for the honored dead; a monument to genius, labor, and +virtue; England's "temple of fame;" the most solemn spot in Europe, if +not in the world! Here lie authors, benefactors, and poets; statesmen, +heroes, and rulers, the best of English blood since Edward the +Confessor, 1049 A.D. We must now leave this sacred spot to visit, if +possible for us, a more sacred one, the birthplace of Methodism, or +more accurately speaking, in the words of Bishop Warren, the "cradle of +Methodism." + +On City Road, London, near Liverpool Street Station, is located the +house, chapel, burial-grounds, and tomb of John Wesley. Across the +street, in an old Nonconformist cemetery, are the graves of James Watt, +Daniel Defoe, and John Bunyan. Across the narrow street to the north +is the tabernacle of Whitefield. We learned that Friday, July 7th, was +reopening day for Wesley's Chapel. What a distinguished body of persons +we found at this meeting! Dr. Joseph Parker was the speaker of the day. +The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, president of the Conference, presided at the +memorial services. Rev. Westerdale, present pastor, successfully managed +the program of the day, especially the collections, for he met the +expense of the rebuilding and past indebtedness with the sum of over +fifteen thousand dollars. He told those discouraged ministers with big +audiences to go and take courage from what the mother-church, with her +small number of poor parishioners, had done. In the evening, Bishop +Warren, on his return to America, called in and gave an interesting +talk. He was followed by Fletcher Moulton, member of Parliament. You +may not realize the feeling of gratitude with which we took part in this +eventful service of praise, prayer, and rededication! On the next day we +returned to see the books, furniture, and apartments of Wesley, himself. +We sat at his writing desk, stood in his death-chamber, and lingered +in the little room where he used to retire at four in the morning for +secret prayer. From here he would go directly to his preaching service +at five. Wesley put God first in his life, this is why men honor him so +much now that he is gone. We took a farewell view of the audience-room +from the very pulpit into which Wesley ascended to preach his Good News +of Christ. From the several inscriptions on Wesley's tomb, we copied +the following one: "After having languished a few days, he at length +finished his course and life together. Gloriously triumphing over death, +March the 2nd, Anno Domine, 1791, in the eighty-eight year of his age." + +In Liverpool, on the day of our arrival, July 1st, an old, gray-haired +man was shining my shoes. He observed that I was from across the water, +and that an Englishman can readily tell a Yankee. He began to praise +America. He said that Uncle Sam was only a child yet, that America was +destined to be the greatest country in the world; that her trouble with +Spain was only a bickering; that the present engagement was only his +maiden warfare, and that he "walked along like a streak of lightning." + +Saturday evening, July 8th, witnessed the greatest military parade +in London for thirty years. The Prince of Wales reviewed twenty-seven +thousand London volunteers. Early in the morning citizens from all over +England began to gather in front of the English barracks, and at the +east end of Hyde Park. By two o'clock in the afternoon hundreds of +thousands had packed the streets and dotted the parks and lawns, until, +in every direction one could witness a sea of faces. After the royal +and military procession began, the patient Johnnies, with their sisters, +sweethearts, wives, mothers, grandmothers, and great-grand-mothers, +stood for five hours to see it go by. The Englishman does not tire when +he is honoring his country. At the close of this parade we dropped into +a barbershop for a shave. The gentleman seemed to understand that I was +a long ways from home. "You fellows," I said, "can tell us as far as you +can see us." "Yes," said he, "by your shoes, your hat, your coat, your +tongue, and even by your face. We can tell you by the way you spit. A +spittoon here, pointing about ten feet away, give a Yankee two trials, +he will hit it every time." + +Travel is a study of the genius of man as shown in architecture, in +sculpture, and in painting. Ninety-seven plans were submitted for the +Houses of Parliament, including Westminster Hall. That of Sir Charles +Barry was selected, and the present imposing structure was built, +covering eight acres, at a cost of $15,000,000. The style is +perpendicular (Gothic), with carvings, intricate in detail and highly +picturesque. The building faces the river with a 940 feet front, but her +three magnificent square-shaped towers rise over her street front. The +clock tower at the northwest corner is 318 feet high, the middle tower +is 300 feet, and the southwest, or Victorian tower, is 340 feet high. +The large clock with its four dials, each twenty-three feet in diameter, +requires five hours for winding the striking parts. The striking bell +of the clock tower is one of the largest known; it weighs thirteen tons, +and can be heard, in favorable weather, over the greater portion +of London. One never tires in looking at this noble building. It is +appropriately adorned inside and out with elaborate carvings, statuary, +and paintings. Here are located the Chamber of Peers, the House of +Commons, and numerous royal apartments, lavishly fitted up to be in +keeping with the office and dignity of the building. + +Crystal Palace, situated about eight miles southeast of St. Paul's, +consists entirely of glass and iron. Its main hall, or nave, is 1,608 +feet long, with great cross sections, two aisles, and numerous lateral +sections. The two water towers at the ends are each 282 feet high. If +you were at the World's Fair in Chicago, and visited the Transportation +Building, you may imagine something of the magnitude and beauty of +Crystal Palace, with her orchestra, concert hall, and opera-house; with +her fountains, library, and school of art; with her museums, gardens, +and arenas; with her parks, panoramas, and her numerous exhibits of +nature and art. Near the center of the palace "is the great Handel +Orchestra, which can accommodate 4,000 persons, and has a diameter twice +as great as the dome of St. Paul's. In the middle is the powerful organ +with 4,384 pipes, built at a cost of $30,000, and worked by hydraulic +machinery. An excellent orchestra plays here daily." The concert-hall +on the south side of the stage can accommodate an audience of 4,000. An +excellent orchestra plays here daily. "On each side of the great nave +are rows of courts, containing in chronological order, copies of the +architecture and sculpture of the most highly civilized nations, from +the earliest period to the present day." The gardens of Crystal Palace +cover two hundred acres, and are beautifully laid out "with flowerbeds, +shrubberies, fountains, cascades, and statuary." "Two of the fountain +basins have been converted into sport arenas, each about eight and +one-half acres in extent." Nine other fountains, with electric light +illuminations, play on fireworks nights and on other special occasions. +It is common for 15,000 visitors to attend these Thursday night firework +exhibits. Colored electric light jets deck the fountains, flower-beds, +and halls. Crystal Palace was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, and cost +seven and a half million of dollars. Well may it be called London's +Paradise. + +Shall we say that the greatest piece of constructive architecture of any +country is that of Eiffel Tower! Situated on the left bank of the Seine +River, it overlooks Paris and the country for fifty miles around. + +In its construction, iron caissons were sunk to a depth of forty-six +feet on the river side, and twenty-nine and one-half on the other side. +When the water was forced out of these caissons by means of compressed +air, "concrete was poured in to form a bed for four massive foundation +piers of masonry, eighty-five feet thick, arranged in a square of 112 +yards. Upon this base which covers about two and a half acres rises +the extraordinary, yet graceful structure of interlaced ironwork" to a +height of 984 feet. Eight hundred persons may be accommodated on the top +platform at once. It was completed within two years' time, and is the +highest monument in the world. Washington monument ranks second, being +555 feet high. From the summit of Eiffel Tower one may secure a good +view of Paris, her public buildings, chief hills, parks, and boulevards, +monuments, and embankments. An imitation of Trajan's column in Rome, is +142 feet in height, and thirteen feet in diameter. It is constructed of +masonry, encrusted with plates of bronze, forming a spiral band nearly +300 yards in length, on which are represented the "battle scenes +of Napoleon during his campaign of 1805, and down to the battle of +Austerlitz. The figures are three feet in height and many of them are +portraits. The metal was obtained by melting down 1,200 Russian and +Austrian cannons. At the top is a statue of Napoleon in his Imperial +robes. This column reflects the political history of France." The design +sculptor is Bergeret. For their antiquity the mummies and statues in +the Egyptian galleries of the British Museum are very interesting. They +embrace the period from 3600 years before Christ to 350 A.D. "The tomb +of Napoleon by Visconte," and "the twelve colossal victories surrounding +the sarcophagus by Pradier," are among the finest works of Parisian +sculpture. The sarcophagus, thirteen feet long, six and one-half feet +high, consists of a single huge block of reddish-brown granite, weighing +upwards of sixty-seven tons, brought as a gift from Finland at a cost of +$700,000. The Louvre, Paris, contains one of the finest art galleries in +Europe, and with the Tuilleries, covers about eight acres, "forming one +of the most magnificent places in the world." + +In our limited experience at travel we have yet to find a single object +of beauty or utility that is not the product of skill, of genius, of +great labor. Every monument bears testimony of struggle, of bloodshed, +of hard-earned victory; beneath every tomb that honor has erected rests +the body of incarnate intelligence, fidelity, and courage. In the shadow +of every great cathedral lies collected the moth and rust from the +coppers of myriad-handed toilers of five and ten centuries. The towers +and domes of London, and Paris, and Amsterdam, and Dublin are monuments +to the genius of the architect and to the faithfulness of the common +toiler. The parks and gardens tell of centuries of wise and faithful +application of the laws of growth, of symmetry, of design in form and +color. The historic chapels of worship and learning breathe the very +incense of devotion and reverence for truth; while the conservatories +of sculpture and painting preserve what is divinest in human experience. +Age alone can produce a great man or a great nation. Decades for the man +and centuries for the nation; these are the measuring periods for real +achievement. But all this is on the human side. Correggio and Titian in +painting; Bacon and Bailey in sculpture; Raphael and Michael Angelo in +sculpture and painting; and Sir Christopher Wren in architecture,--the +works of art of such as these elevate and purify one's thought and +feeling. But the profoundest impressions that come to one from travel, +come alone from the works of nature. The Crystal Palace in London can +not compare in glory with the crystal ripples of a mid-ocean scene. The +botannical gardens of the Tuilleries in Paris do not stir the soul as +does the splendor of the Welsh mountains. The rockery plants of Phoenix +Park, Dublin, are insignificant compared with growths of ferns and moss +On the rock ledges of Bray's Head, south of Dublin. No panorama that man +has painted can equal the scene of Waterloo battle-field, observed from +the earthen mound near the fatal ravine. So, we shall always find it +true, that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so the thoughts of +God are higher than the thoughts of man, and his ways than man's ways. + + + + +X. HOME AND THE HOME-MAKER. + +WHAT IS HOME? + + +"RECENTLY a London magazine sent out 1,000 inquiries on the question, +'What is home?' In selecting the classes to respond to the question it +was particular to see that every one was represented. The poorest and +the richest were given an equal opportunity to express their sentiment. +Out of eight hundred replies received, seven gems were selected as +follows: + + "Home--A world of strife shut out, a world of love shut in. + "Home--The place where the small are great and the great are + small. + "Home--The father's kingdom, the mother's world, and the + child's paradise. + "Home--The place where we grumble the most and are treated + the best. + "Home--The center of our affection, round which our heart's + best wishes twine. + "Home--The place where our stomachs get three square meals + daily and our hearts a thousand. + "Home--The only place on earth where the faults and failings + of humanity are hidden under the sweet mantle of charity." + +Dr. Talmage defines home, as "a church within a church, a republic +within a republic, a world within a world." Dr. Banks writes, "It is not +granite walls, or gaudy furniture, or splendid books, or soft carpets, +or delicious viands that can make a home. All of these may be present, +and yet it be only a dungeon, if the great simplicities are not there." +Sings one: + + "Home's not merely roof and room, + Needs it something to endear it. + Home is where the heart can bloom, + Where there's some kind heart to cheer it. + + Home's not merely four square walls, + Though with pictures hung and gilded, + Home is where affection calls, + Filled with charms the heart hath builded. + + Home! Go watch the faithful dove + Sailing 'neath the heavens above us, + Home is where there's one to love, + Home is where there's one to love us." + +We believe the five sweetest words in the English language to the +largest number of persons--words which carry with them intrinsic meaning +and blessing are these: "Jesus," "Mother," "Music," "Heaven," "Home." +"Twenty thousand people gathered in the old Castle Garden, New York, to +hear Jennie Lind sing. After singing some of the old masters, she began +to pour forth 'Home, Sweet Home.' The audience could not stand it. An +uproar of applause stopped the music. Tears gushed from thousands like +rain. The word 'home' touched the fiber of every soul in that immense +throng." In an early spring day, when the warm sun began to invite one +to bask in his rays, my wife, delicate in health, lay drowsing on some +boards near the house. The large garden spot spread out to the rear of +her; a beautiful grassy lawn carpeted round a deserted house, granary, +and shop-building in front of her. She was living over her girlhood +days. She thought she was in the old home orchard, where she used to +doze, dream, and play. The songs of the birds seemed the same; the same +gentle breezes played with her hair; the same passers-by jogged along +the roadside; the same family horse nibbled the tender grass in the +barnyard. How sad, and yet how sweet are the memories of early days! The +tender associations of home never leave one, however roughly the coarse +hand of time would tear them away. It is because home means love that +its associations and lessons remain. + + +ESSENTIALS TO A HAPPY HOME. + +Although home means love, yet love alone may not insure happiness. In +addition to love, without which a true home can not exist, we select +four essential requisites to make home life useful and happy. These are +intelligence, unselfishness, attractiveness, and religion. + +First, Intelligence. Much of the misery of the world in individual and +family life is due to gross ignorance. Once the father of a family said +to me, "We did not get our mail to-day, I miss my reading." Knowing the +man we were surprised at such a remark, and ventured to ask him what +papers he took. A list of ten or a dozen papers was named. All of them +were newspapers. One was a general daily, two were local dailies, and +the rest were local weekly papers. No intelligent person would have +carried over three of those papers from the post-office. This man spent +hours upon a class of reading that should be finished with a few minutes +each day. In this same family the mother told me that she had never +rode on a railway train, and that she had never been outside of her +own county. This is an exceptional case, but it illustrates how that +ignorance makes thrift and happiness impossible in a home, neither +of which belong to this family. Here every law of health is violated, +foresight in providing for the physical comforts of the home is +wanting; little attention is given to the education of the children; +no sacrifices to-day enrich to-morrow; life is a humdrum, a routine, a +dread, with no exuberance, joy, or hope. In time, such a life leads +to failure and gloom, to secret, then to open vice, and to a final +shipwreck of the home and of the individual. In a similar yet in a less +marked way, the career of many a home is ended. No one may be directly +to blame, but want of common knowledge and common wit have set a limit +beyond which such a family may not go. The intelligent family has some +sort of a history which it is their privilege and duty to perpetuate. +Members of the intelligent family are moral sponsors for one another, +the mother for the daughters, the father for the sons, the brothers +and sisters for one another. They find their own best interests in the +interests of one another. The intelligent family is not superstitious. +They act upon the wisdom of the ancient poet, "every one is the +architect of his own fortune." They look to cause and condition for +results. They spell "luck" with a "p" before it. The intelligent farmer +plants his crop in the ground, rather than in the moon, and looks for +his harvest to the seed and the toil. The intelligent merchant locates +his business on the street of largest travel and makes the buying of his +goods his best salesman. The intelligent man of letters thrives at first +by making friends of poverty and want, until one day his genius places +his name in the temple of honor. So it is with the artist, the musician, +the inventor, the architect. To be happy and useful in one's lot, one +must know something of the sphere in which he lives and works, of its +practical wisdom, and must be prepared to live, or glad to die for the +cause he serves. No indolent, superstitious, or ignorant family need +look for abiding happiness nor expect to be permanently useful. + +Then unselfishness is essential to happy home life. It is a serious +matter for two persons, even when they are naturally mated, to undertake +to live together in peace and harmony. It is a more serious matter when +they are not naturally mated. It is more serious still when children +enter the home, for they bring with them conflicting tendencies, +dispositions, and wills. Often have we wondered how it is that families +get on as well together as they do when we have considered, what natural +differences exist between them, and what little teaching and discipline +have been used to harmonize these differences. An harmonious home is +truly begun in the parental homes of the husband and wife. Two persons +may be perfectly suited to one another, and yet they may be selfish in +wanting their own way. As one grows up, if he is allowed to have his +own way regardless of the rights and privileges of others, he becomes +a selfish person, and his parents are to blame. A selfish person in the +home plans for his own comfort, decides and acts as he wishes, and seeks +to satisfy his own desires. He does not take into consideration the +plans, wishes, and desires of other members of the family. It is +understood that his authority is supreme. Not one member of the family +dreams of expressing dissent to his dominion. A so-called peace of +this sort is not uncommon among families. This supreme authority may be +vested in husband, or wife, or in one or all of the children. A forced +peace of this kind is worse than rebellion and is as bad as open war. +How can any persons be so presumptuous as to think that any person, or +a number of persons, exist solely for his comfort and advantage! Let +two such selfish persons get together, a permanent riot is assured. +Unselfishness in the home means thoughtfulness, discipline, +self-control. Each child is taught the rights and privileges of others +as well as his own. When two unselfish persons join their lives there +begins a holy and beautiful rivalry in seeking the rights and privileges +of one another. The very atmosphere of such a home is deference, +respect, and love. As the stranger, the neighbor, the friend, comes and +goes, he catches the spirit of it and carries it with him into his own +and other homes. Children born into such a home early imbibe its spirit, +and, O, the inspiration one receives from going into that family circle! +No home-life can be an inspiration and a blessing where selfishness is +allowed to reign. Nor can it be useful and happy. + +Ella Wheeler Wilcox describes a selfish, though a kind and loving +husband: + + +THEIR HOLIDAY. + + THE WIFE: + + Our house is like a garden-- + The children are the flowers, + The gardener should come, methinks, + And walk among his bowers. + So lock the door of worry, + And shut your cares away, + Not time of year, but love and cheer, + Will make a holiday. + + THE HUSBAND: + + Impossible! You women do not know, + The toil it takes to make a business grow: + I can not join you until very late, + So hurry home, nor let the dinner wait. + + THE WIFE: + + The feast will be like Hamlet, + Without the Hamlet part; + The home is but a house, dear, + Till you supply the heart. + The Christmas gift I long for + You need not toil to buy; + O, give me back one thing I lack: + The love-light in your eye. + + THE HUSBAND: + + Of course I love you, and the children, too. + Be sensible, my dear. It is for you + I work so had to make my business pay; + There, now, run home, enjoy your holiday. + + THE WIFE, TURNING AWAY: + + He does not mean to wound me, + I know his heart is kind, + Alas, that men can love us, + And be so blind--so blind! + A little time for pleasure, + A little time for play, + A word to prove the life of love + And frighten care away-- + Though poor my lot, in some small cot, + That were a holiday. + + +To preserve the family circle, the home must be made attractive. +No amount of practical wisdom, of Puritanic piety, nor mere kindly +treatment will hold a family of children together until they are strong +enough to resist the temptations of the world. The home must be made +more attractive than the street or places of amusement. The average boy +or girl who loses interest in home and uses it chiefly as an eating and +sleeping place, does so with good reasons. Home has lost its charm. No +provision is made for his pastime and pleasure. Not finding this at home +he will go elsewhere in search of it. "An unattractive home," says one, +"is like the frame of a harp that stands without strings. In form and +outline, it suggests music, but no melody arises from the empty spaces; +and thus it is an unattractive home, is dreary and dull." How may home +be made attractive? We have presupposed a certain amount of education +and culture in the home by maintaining for it intelligence and +unselfishness. Any home that is intelligent and unselfish is capable +of being made attractive. In the first place, in as far as it is +practicable, each member of the family should have a room of his own +and be taught how to make it attractive. Here, one will hang his first +pictures, start his own library, provide a writing desk, and learn to +spend his spare moments. Recently we visited a home in Chicago. The +rooms are few in number and hired. The family consists of father, +mother, and three children, now grown. During our short stay in the home +I was invited into the boys' room. The walls are literally covered with +original pencil designs, queer calendars, odd pictures; the dresser +and stand are lined with books and magazines, with worn-out musical +instruments, art gifts from other members of the family, and ball-team +pictures, while two lines of gorgeous decorations stretch from wall to +wall. This is still these young men's little world, their interests +have centered here. No less than five kinds of musical instruments were +visible in this home. The walls of the living room and parlor are made +beautiful with simple tasteful pictures made by the daughter, whose +natural gift in art was early cultivated. The table, shelves, and +mantelpiece are decorated with china bowls, plates, and vases, simply, +yet elegantly adorned. This work was done by the daughter and mother. +Not a large but a choice collection of flowering plants relieved the bay +window of its emptiness. This is an attractive home. The children +never have cared to spend their evenings on the street nor at places of +amusement. Games of skill, innocent, instructive, and entertaining, may +be used to make home life more attractive. Only let the amusements of +the home be under the direction of father and mother, and be practiced +by them. Here is a chance to teach shrewdness, honor, interest, and by +all means, moderation. To overdo at games and amusements is more harmful +than to overwork. + +Religion is essential to happy home life. A family may get on for a time +very smoothly without prayer, Bible study, faith in God, and love for +Jesus Christ; but no family life is completed without a storm, many +storms of some sort. Years may pass as on a quiet sea, but one day at +high noon, or, perhaps, in the silent, early hour, a small cloud is seen +in the distance; it comes nearer; the wind begins to blow, the thunders +peal, the lightnings flash, the old home, for so long an ark of safety, +is being tossed on the billowy waves. A testing time is at hand. +Mother is gone, or father has ventured too far and lost all; or son has +disgraced the family name; or daughter is in shame; or the darling of +the home is no more! It makes a vast difference who is at the helm when +the storms of home life rage. It is a mark of highest wisdom to place +the family ship under the world's best Captain, Jesus Christ. He never +lost a life. He alone can arrest the lightning, quiet the waves, inspire +confidence, and restore peace and good will in any storm. But +religion is not only useful in trouble, it is an ornament in peace and +prosperity, in the making and building of the home. Tempers must be +controlled, dispositions cultivated, conduct improved, hearts softened, +and minds purified and disciplined. To accomplish all of this, no +substitute can be made for the spirit and faith of Jesus Christ. + +"'Dear Moss,' said the thatch on an old ruin, 'I am so worn, so patched, +so ragged, really I am quite unsightly. I wish you would come and cheer +me up a little. You will hide all my infirmities and defects; and, +through your loving sympathy no finger of contempt or dislike will be +pointed at me.' 'I come,' said the moss; and it crept up and around, +and in and out, till every flaw was hidden, and all was smooth and fair. +Presently the sun shone out, and the old thatch looked bright and fair, +a picture of rare beauty, in the golden rays. 'How beautiful the thatch +looks!' cried one who saw it. 'How beautiful the thatch looks!' said +another. 'Ah!' said the old thatch, 'rather let them say, 'How beautiful +is the loving moss!'" So it is with the religion of Christ, it adorns +and beautifies the life who really wears it; so that the plainness of +that life is covered, its ruggedness softened, and its "pain transformed +into profit and its loss into gain." + +Charles M. Sheldon gives as an essential for a permanent republic, +"A true home life where father, mother, and children spend much time +together; where family worship is preserved; where honesty, purity, and +mutual affection are developed." + +J.R. Miller beautifully sums up the secret of happy home-making in +one word--"'Christ.' Christ at the marriage altar; Christ on the bridal +journey; Christ when the new home is set up; Christ when the baby is +born; Christ when the baby dies; Christ in the pinching times; Christ +in the days of plenty; Christ in the nursery, in the kitchen, in the +parlor; Christ in the toil and in the rest; Christ all along the years; +Christ when the wedded pair walk toward the sunset gates; Christ in the +sad hour when the farewells are spoken, and one goes on before and the +other stays, bearing the unshared grief. Christ is the secret of happy +home life." + + +THE HOME-MAKER. + +Just as a surly husband, a dissipated father, or a reckless son may +blight a home and destroy its happiness, so may a thoughtful, virtuous, +and kind man in the home change its very atmosphere and help to make +it a heaven. As a home-maker man has the ruggeder part. It is his to +provide. The man who falls short of this in the home does not do his +part. No woman can respect a man much less love him, who places her, her +work, her life, her home, her world under constant embarrassment by a +scant and niggardly provision. She loses her ambition, ceases to make +her self and her home attractive; disorder, filth, unwholesome food, +lack of spirit on her part is the result. She can not be to him, most of +all, what he expects her to be, a companion, a counselor, a comfort--a +home-maker. Also, it is the part of the man in the home to shield the +woman from the heavier burdens and responsibilities. Let him count the +cost of his enterprises, secure himself against hazardous speculations, +and give his wife and children to realize that his shoulders, and +not theirs, are to bear the load of financial obligation and +material support. This leaves the woman with her finer instincts and +sensibilities to make the home the dearest spot on earth to husband, +children, and to all who cross her threshold. The house is her dominion. +There she is queen. What a tender and beautiful one she may become! + + +SOME PRACTICAL HINTS. + +The true home-maker does not spend all of her time with her ducks, +chickens, pigs, and cows, nor yet with her neighbors, her club, nor her +Church. She finds some time to cultivate her intellectual nature and +the finer feelings of her children. She does not degenerate into a +mere household drudge. She is not the slave of her husband, but his +companion. If she has musical ability, she keeps up the practice of +her music; if she is inclined to literature, she reads some every day. +Whether literary or not, every woman should spend some time each day in +reading that she might keep abreast with the world, at least with her +companion, in the movements and thoughts of every-day life. The true +home-maker plans to have a few minutes each day which she calls her own, +in which she may do as she pleases regardless of call or duty, that she +might relax herself, remove the strain of intense effort, rest, give her +nature its free bent and inclination. It will pay her in every way. She +will accomplish more and better work in the busy hours. A spirit and +a force will characterize every effort. The women of to-day are +overworked. They can not do themselves, their families, not their homes +the true spiritual service that it is their part to do. Plan for a few +minutes rest with the daily routine of care. But how is one to do +this with so many demands made upon her? For she is expected to be +seamstress, laundress, maid, cook, hostess, a companion to her husband, +a trainer of her children, a social being, and a helper in the Church. +If it is impossible or impracticable for one to have a servant, she will +find these few minutes for daily recreation and study only in a wise +choice of more important duties, and will allow the less important ones +to go undone. Many housewives could well afford to keep a helper. It +becomes a question which is of greater importance, the life and health +of the wife and mother, or the paltry wages of a servant? We knew a +family in Illinois who were quite able to keep help in the home, but did +not do so. The mother made a slave of herself, in a few years broke in +health, and left a large family of small children to struggle alone in +the world. The stepmother, who soon came into the home, could afford one +servant girl and part of the time two. This is a common experience +in ill-managed homes. Or this question arises, Which is of greater +importance, to make more money or to improve the moral tone of the home; +to seek to gratify the outer senses, or to seek to elevate the spiritual +life of the children and the parents? In pleading for rest and study for +the mother in the home we plead for the highest interests of the entire +family. For how can a wife be a companion to a husband when she is made +irritable and nervous from overwork and worry. How can she be a true +mother to her children and neglect their mental and spiritual growth? + +Napoleon once said: "What France wants is good mothers, and you may be +sure then that France will have good sons." Thomas McCrie, an eminent +Scotch preacher, used to tell, with great feeling, of how his mother, +when he was starting out for school in the city, accompanied him along +the road a little way, and then leading him into the field where she +could be alone, prayed with him, that he might be kept from sin in the +city, and become a very useful man. That moment was the turning point +in his life. A few minutes a day spent with the eager, susceptible child +mind, will bring everlasting blessing upon the father and mother. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Questionable Amusements and Worthy +Substitutes, by J. M. 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