Amusements | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1885

Amusements.

IN an article in the last Century, on the relation of Christianity to popular amusements, the Rev. Washington Gladden gives the following general principles, by which each may determine whether a particular form of amusement is or is not suitable in his own case:—

"1. Amusement is not an end, but a means—a means of replenishing the mind and replenishing the strength of the body; when it begins to be the principle thing for which one lives, or when in pursuing it the mental powers are enfeebled and the bodily health impaired, it falls under just condemnation.

"2. Amusements that consume the hours which ought to be sacred to sleep are, therefore, censurable.

"3. Amusements that call away from work which we are bound to do are pernicious just to the extent to which they cause us to be neglectful or unfaithful.

"4. Amusements that arouse or stimulate morbid appetite or unlawful passions, or that cause us to be restless or discontented, are always to be avoided.

"5. Any indulgence in amusements which has a tendency to weaken our respect for the great interests of character, or to loosen our hold on the eternal verities of the spiritual realm, is, so far forth, a damage to us."