| Show amusements AND rev mr hudsons Hud sons sermon at unit unity y hall PAULS PAULIS NOTIONS OF RELIGION dancing card playing find and theatergoing as viewed ty by the and later by the puritans itans common interests of humanity ought not to be separated from the influence of religion rev adelbert xi hudson spoke yesterday morning upon the attitude 0 of f the church toward popular amuse whether ye eat or drink whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever e do do all to the glory 0 of f god lie ile said bald that the question ot of the attitude of the church toward popular amusements involved of necessity tile the deeper problem of tile the attitude of the church toward the life of humanity as a a whole and tho the relations of that life to the infinite spirit which m aich peri ades the universe it involves the question quest lon as to what la Is meant by to tho 1 I 0 glory 0 of god cod how can we eat to the g glory I 1 cry of god or drink to the glory of god or dance or play cards or billiards or attend the theater to the glory of god A careful reading of tile tho morning lesson 1 I cor x would show that pauls conception of religion was that it should be cultivated in closest contact with human life and amid all phases of human experience but later on in the history of the elie church a very different theory came to prevail As early as the fifth and sixth centuries of our era em monasticism had begun to fasten upon european civilise tion lion its conception of religion as con asting in separation from the ordinary activities of life and renunciation of its ordinary pleasures ind and associations ecclesiastical ecclesiastic al all authority tho rity as soon as it 11 came caine to realize the use it might make of the monastic orders gave its sanction A and not support to this conception and it was guither aided by a theology which taught that man was in A lost and tallon tallen state late and could only hope salvation front from endless torture through obedience to the church so it came about in time that the ascetic ideal be becaro came tile the thought of christendom after the reformation had weakened tle the power ot of monastic influence the puritan movement took up and pr preserved C the ascetic spirit tn in a new room religion was made to seem something somber mournful and forbidding all amusements were satanic satan lc P all 11 grace brace anti and light and beauty were to be banished from human life as aren agencies cles of the e 11 one fitted to cestr destroy oy the human soul so that there was probably as much truth as wit in the remark of macauley Illa cauley that the puritans objected to bear baiting balting not so much because it hurt the bears as because it amused the PC people pie this a attitude of hostility toward the pleasures and amusements of life entered early into the civilization civilisation of the american continent and remained ane dominant spirit of the chuich down damn to m within tho the memory of the present generation cards dancing billiards and theatergoing theater going were forbidden plea pleasures beres and hence came to be enjoyed clandestinely and with doubtful associates this latter fact however was an effect rather than a cause of the hostile attitude of the church the real couse was the false view oi of life inherited from m monastic and puritan leals together with the false view or of religion which considers its chief t object to be ba the purchasing of happiness in the next world by foregoing the pleasures of this sue a view of religion and of life regards the so called religious interests of humanity as separate from and opposed to the so called worldly interests such a view compels the saint to be a hermit and condemns the man who he mingles with his kind to be a sinner iner such a view Is not that of jesus charlt whose life was gives mod among mankind in ili tho the closest contact with its sorrows and its joys and whose utterances thrill with an ever present sense fenice of the fullness of life neither la Is it the view which Is adopted to keep humanity in its present needs there are dangers which attach themselves to the enjoyment of popular amusements dangers which demand our earnest thought and care there are dangers which attach themselves to every form of contact of our imperfect lives cut but the remedy la in not f tor or religion to withdraw W itself from the common activities of life we shall most truly live to the glory of god when ne e tr try y to carry the spirit and the will of god coil into all the varied fields or of human experience A pious old lady once came to mr mar beecher to reprove him for having bought her son on a fiddle be but t remained to prial praise lse the blessed ble asod molln when it played old licali hundred dred 11 coronation and other soul stirring old familiar hammi so the chure church h will best reveal tile the music that there Is in human life not by ignoring or destroying any of 0 the chords to which our human in nature ture vibrates but rather by adjusting them to to ine the divine harmonies by attuning the clear ringing upper notes of joy and gladness in our lives in harmony with the ilic deep bass of the moral law which pervades the un lierse the thing useful church of the twentieth century must be in closest touch with human life it must enter with intelligent and tender sympathy into the common experiences of our dally life it must be in the best and broadest A sense a church of humanity to attain this end Is the goal toward which we strive it Is an end which may well command our noblest effort for to reach it we must build our altars altara lofty as n Is the love of god and ample as aa tile wants of nan man |
