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Show DR. VANCE'S DAILY ARTICLE 1 i By DR. JAMES I. VANCE, , Founder of Inter-Church World Movement and Chairman, Federal Council of Churches of Aniorlca. The God who made the tear ducts also made the laughing muscles. The Master Musician AVho built a stop for groans into the human orchestra also built stops for laugher and song. The man who neods to pray also needs to play, and both needs are divino and function through the spiritual part of our being. It Is a healthy sign that fuller and saner provision Is being made for the play side of life. It should issue in not only making people happier, but better. Amusement contributes to normal and symmetrical living. It Is an essential element hi the evolution of. character,. Amusement, however, is not the end of existence. It is merely a feature. It Is a means to the oud. People who have to be everlastingly amused possess pos-sess a child typo of mind. People who live to play miss tho best. Amusement, like money, Is a good thing when rightly U6ed, but a bad thing when it usos you. It makes a good servant, but a poor master. That amusoment Is being overdone by many poople today will not be questioned. Perhaps tho reaction fol; lowing the fearful strain of tho four years of war is an explanation In parL The news which cornea from France and Other countries overseas is In line with what Is going on. in America, Amusement has becomo a mania, an obcsSlon. Tho play houses are packed. Tho revival of serious thinking and sacrificial living that was hoped for and predicted haa not arrived. It may run in yet behind Hchcdule. for tho history of every great war reveals a revival of' religion as a blesalng that follows In the wake of the horrors of human strife and bloodshed. It would show that the raco has cheapened cheap-ened if thero be no general turning to God and tho sanctities of llfo after this war, which has soaked the earth in blood. The peril Is not that amusement will keep mdn from work. It will not do that for tho American type. Nothing Is allowed to come between him and business. The peril Is not to work, but to worship. The danger Is that undor the mania for play, the spiritual sido of life will atrophy, and the- things which the-Maker has built between us and disaster may be Ignored Ig-nored and lost. Tho sabbath, the cultivation cul-tivation of the 'home, tho enjoyment of human friendships, the season of meditation, the deed of morcy,. are all too precious to bo crowded out by cither work or play. |