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Show AMUSEMENTS NOW AX I) THEN' To many it will seem that the action ac-tion of the Methodist general conference, confer-ence, in session n Springfield, Mass.. in voting to make the matter of engaging en-gaging in what are termed the popular popu-lar amusements one of individual decision, de-cision, was promoted by wisdom, rather than mere expediency. For many years, judging somewhat superficially, su-perficially, the communicants of that faith have assuified this right, perhaps per-haps regretting meanwhile that the claimed freedom of conscience has often failed to bring the anticipated pleasure. Thus rc-morse, not the result re-sult of engaging in diversions which are themselves harmless, but of conscious con-scious authority, has followed where there might otherwise have been happiness. hap-piness. How appreciable the thought of the people as' a whole has been changed within the last half century regarding the matter of amusements. Many can remember the time when the use of a piano or organ in the home on Sunday, exepet for the playing play-ing of accompaniments to sacred hymns, was strictly forbidden by -religious parents. Cards and similar games were taboo at all times, and dancing was frowned upon as a manifestation man-ifestation of evil in its most virulent form. Thought has undergone a decided de-cided change, either for better or for worse., it seems u is to oe iert to tne individual to decide which. There remain among the membership member-ship of the Methodist Episcopal church, no doubt, many who will re- 1 gard the action of the conference as ill-advised, if not actually revolutionary. revolution-ary. Their views have been formed and are not to be changed. But they and all of us, for that matter, should remember that in its strictest sense the matter of indulgence, whatever its form, is one that must finally be left to the individual. Prohibition, whether of liquor drinking or card-playing, card-playing, dancing or what not, can never become universal by mere. ukase or decree. Humans claim to be free moral agents, and it seems that they are to insist upon the right to prove either that they are or are not. The experiment, many are convinced, should not be hindered or interfered with. Christian Science Monitor. |