selfish, in that they are the love and pursuit of pleasure, for the same reason? Personal gratification lies at the bottom of all alike. This is the ruling motive in all alike, and how shall the conclusion be resisted, that this motive constitutes them all alike selfish? But selfishness, if not the very essence of sin, is, in all its forms and degrees, sinful. It is in direct opposition to that cardinal and universal law, which requires us to love God, and not ourselves, with a supreme affection.

Besides, how are amusements, in the sense explained, to be reconciled with Scriptures such as these? "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord." "Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." "Wherefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." Amusements are the pursuit of pleasurable courses for personal gratification for pleasure's sake. But the Scriptures forbid us to do anything from such a motive. Whatever we do, we are to do it as unto the Lord. Whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God.

And as amusements are in spirit and motive sinful, so their tendencies, it is believed, are always evil. The tendency of recreation, when engaged in from the right motive and under proper limitations, is good, and only good. It is essential to health, happiness, usefulness, we had almost said to life itself. But amusements being of another nature, their fruits are of another kind. They are of the opposite kind, as their history abundantly shows.

The expense of amusements-their pecuniary expense-is enormous. We will not undertake to compute it; it is more than the world can well bear. But great as this expense may be, it is not the heaviest bill incurred. The expense to reputation, to usefulness, to health, to life, is much greater. How many fair characters have been forfeited, how many bright prospects have been clouded and blasted, how many good constitutions have been ruined, how many valuable lives have been thrown away, in the pursuit of fashionable amusements.

And then the effect of amusements upon the spiritual interests of those who engage in them is to be taken into the account; withdrawing the thoughts from God and things divine, dissipating serious impressions, unfitting the soul for devotional exercises, and grieving away the Holy Spirit.

The amusements of men, at some periods, have been characterized by the utmost barbarity and cruelty. The gladiatorial shows of the ancients, where men mangled and butchered each other for the gratification of thousands and tens of thousands of spectators, these were choice amusements in their day. And

bull-baitings, and bear-baitings, and horse-racings, and cockfightings, involving the greatest cruelty to animals, and resulting often in broils and murders, these are choice amusements now. The excitement, the interest of them is intense. They so fire the soul and stir the blood, as to render all other amusements worthless.

But it will be said that no one pleads for amusements such as these, but only for such as are decent and harmless. And yet if you plead for amusement, in the proper sense of the word, at all, you plead for that which is of the same essential nature as these. You plead for that which, if left to its natural, appropriate influence, will lead right on to these, or to that which is worse. The natural tendency of amusements, as of every other form of sin, is downward. You engage in what you call a decent amusement now, for the mere pleasure of it, or from motives of self-gratification. But soon you are cloyed with that; it ceases to gratify. And now you must have something else, and something of a little stronger and more stirring character; and when you are cloyed with that, you must have something a little more stirring still, and thus you go on, and go down from one thing to another, till very soon, if not restrained, you reach the bottom. You become a pleasure-hunter of the lowest class.

Much labor has been expended in endeavoring to show what amusements are innocent, and what injurious; what should be tolerated, and what condemned. But no clear line of distinction has ever been drawn, or ever can be; and for the very good reason that none exists. There is a distinction between recreation and amusement; a deep, thorough, radical distinction; reaching to the end, the motive, the object of each; making the former, under the proper conditions, not only harmless but useful, and consigning the latter to selfishness and sin. This is the distinction which we have endeavored to set forth and illustrate, and of the validity of which our readers will judge.

There will be objections undoubtedly to the views which have been presented, some of which it is proposed now to consider.

It will be said, perhaps, that if the God of the Bible prohibits amusements, the God of nature tolerates and encourages them, and thus natural and revealed religion are set at variance. But how shall it be made to appear that the God of nature tolerates and encourages what we have defined as amusements? That the God of nature has not shown himself indifferent to the happiness of his creatures, but has made provision for their happiness in a thousand ways, we rejoice to believe; and that it is lawful for us to partake in moderation of that happiness which he so liberally imparts, we as fully believe. But all this comes vastly short of

our entering on the direct pursuit of pleasure, for the mere sake of personal enjoyment.

God has kindly made the gratification of our appetites a source of pleasure to us, and we are bound thankfully to accept the pleasure which is thus afforded. We may do this, and yet eat and drink to the glory of God. But when we indulge our appetites for the mere sake of indulgence, then we stand on a different footing, we become epicures at once. God has also endowed us with external and internal senses, and he has so ordered things in the worlds of matter and of mind, that these become to us sources of high enjoyment, and we are not to be afraid of the happiness thus afforded us. We are to accept and enjoy it with all thankfulness; this we may do, and should do, from a supreme love to God, and with a heart of benevolence. But when we give ourselves up to pleasures of this sort, and pursue them, as many do, from motives of mere personal indulgence and gratification; then, as before, we stand on a different footing, we become epicures of a higher sort, we are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God."

It will be further objected, that if amusements are interdicted to grown people, they surely cannot be to children and youth. These love amusements, they crave them, they must and will have them; and, as Mr. Sawyer argues in the work before us, if they cannot have them openly and decently, they will plunge into them secretly, and perhaps shamefully. We hardly need assure our readers that we feel a deep interest in children and youth, and should be unwilling to deny or to grudge them one lawful pleasure-one innocent enjoyment. The amusements of the young naturally divide themselves into two classes; those which are appropriate to little children, and those which are indulged in, in maturer years. The first, in many instances, can hardly be said to possess a moral character. They are the mere outbursts of animal feeling, and are no more praise or blameworthy, in a moral point of view, than the frolic of a kitten or a lamb. So far as the amusements of children at this period can be said to possess a moral character, we suppose they are in general sinful, and that for two reasons: first, because all the moral acts of unrenewed souls are sinful; and secondly, because they often show themselves to be sinful. They partake evidently of the nature of pride, envy, revenge, selfishness, malice, and even of cruelty.

With regard to the pleasures of those who have passed the season of childhood, and arrived at maturer years, while we admit that certain courses of action belong appropriately to them, and that they may require more of recreation and diversion than

persons advanced in life, we deny that they have any more right than older persons to forget God, and live unto themselves, and pursue pleasure for pleasure's sake; in other words, to indulge in amusements, as they have been before defined. We hold that the same great law of love which binds the man of sixty, has teen constantly upon him from his childhood and youth. He was as truly under obligations to love God supremely, and do al things to his glory, at the age of ten, or of twenty, as he is

now.

It is undoubtedly true, that every age and condition in life has its appropriate employments and enjoyments. When Paul was a child, it was proper for him to speak as a child, to understand as a child, to think as a child; and when he became a man, it was proper for him to put away childish things. But let children be taught in their earliest years to love God, and not themselves, with a supreme affection; to receive and enjoy everything as from him; and to do everything with a view to his glory, and not to their own personal gratification, and whatever they cannot do to the glory of God, it is quite certain they should not do at all. But it will be said that we, like Israel of old, have our festal occasions-days of rejoicing-our annual thanksgivings and anniversaries of American Independence, when it is proper, surely, to indulge in amusements. We have, indeed, our annual festal days-days of cheerful, grateful remembrance, which may well be devoted to sacred song, to devout thanksgiving, and to other demonstrations of holy joy. But can it be proper, under pretense of honoring God on such occasions, to break his laws, and to sin against him with a higher and bolder hand than at any other time? Yet such, undoubtedly, is the manner in which these days are often spent, more especially by the votaries and advocates of amusements. There can be no question that more sin is committed on our festal days, we fear vastly more, than on almost any other days of the year. These are the seasons, emphatically, for giddy frivolity, for uproarious mirth, for sensual gratification, and with many for the lowest forms of vice; and all this under pretense of amusement, and the proper observance of a joyful day, a strange way this of expressing our gratitude to God for mercies past, and propitiating his favor for the time to come! It is as if we should hope to please and honor him by insulting him to his face!

But it is asked by Mr. Sawyer and those who think with him: Why cannot amusements be reformed? Instead of being placed under the ban of religion and of social morality, why may they not be incorporated into them, and be regulated by them? Let Christians participate freely in the amusements of the age, give

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them a character, and keep them from running out into dangerous excesses, and all will be well. To this we answer, first of all, that the course here recommended has been often attempted, and has always failed; a reformed theater-a reformed bowlingalley-a reformed gaming-table-a reformed ball-room-these are not new ideas just now started and recommended to our notice for the first time. The experiment has been tried oftentried under the most favoring circumstances and we have no hesitation in saying that it has always failed. The patrons of amusements do not wish them reformed. Reformed so as to be acceptable to serious Christians, they would no longer be amusements for them. There is but one way of reforming sin, and that is to abandon it. To gloss it over under false appearances, and cling to it, and persist in it, is of all paths the most certain to ruin and to death.

It is admitted by those with whom we argue, that amusements, placed as they now are under the restraints of Christian example and influence, are peculiarly liable to excess. Those who love them plunge recklessly into them, and indulge them to their hurt. What then, we ask them to consider, would be the result, if the restraints of Christian example and influence were taken off? In that case, where would the lovers of pleasure go? And where would the better portion of society be likely to go with them? Not only would the excesses of the wicked be increased, but they would no longer think it strange (as they did in Peter's time) that Christians did not "run to the same excess of riot with them." They would run to the same excess of riot, and serious, evangelical religion would disappear from the earth.

The distinction which we have endeavored to illustrate between recreations and amusements is, in our view, a very important

one.

It is radical. The former are required of us both by reason and the word of God; the latter are discountenanced and prohibited by both. The consequences of the former, when kept within the proper limits, are only good; while those of the latter are hurtful and disastrous. So they have shown themselves in all past ages; so they will be in the ages to come. "A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit." "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?"

An important part of our subject still remains, viz.: the lairs, the conditions by which recreation is to be regulated; so that it shall be not injurious, but salutary; not offensive to God, but well pleasing in his sight. We cannot promise to notice all these laws, but will mention some of them.

1. In choosing our recreations, we must be guided, in part, by our circumstances and necessities. All persons do not require