Theodore Bacon, Esq., Rochester, N. Y.

IV. The Rise of the Episcopate as a Distinct Office in the Church,

George S. Merriam, M. A., Yale Theological Seminary.
Part III.-Law of Divorce in the
Roman Empire, and in the Christian
Church,

VI. Signs in Deaf Mute Education,

VII. The "Catholic World" more Catholic,

VIII. The Arian Controversy,

Cornelius L. Kitchell, M. A., Yale Theological Seminary.

THE

NEW ENGLANDER.

No. C.

JULY, 1867.

ARTICLE I.—AMUSEMENTS.

Religion and Amusement; An Essay delivered at the International Convention of Young Men's Christian Associations, held in Albany, N. Y., June 1st, 1866. By Rev. MARVIN R. VINCENT, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Troy, N. Y. pp. 32.

Christian Amusements; A Discourse delivered February 11th, 1866, at the annual meeting of the Young Men's Christian Association of St. Paul. By Rev. EDWIN SIDNEY WILLIAMS, Pastor of the Congregational Church at Northfield, Minn. pp. 31.

Amusements; Their Uses and their Abuses; A Sermon preached in the First Congregational Church, North Adams, Mass., Sunday evening, Nov. 26th, 1866. By Rev. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, Acting Pastor. pp. 31.

Social Hints for Young Christians, in three Sermons. By HOWARD CROSBY, Pastor of the 4th Avenue Presbyterian Church, New, York. [Published by request of the Young People's Christian Association.] 1866. pp. 56.

In the World, Not of the World. Thoughts on Christian Casuistry. By WILLIAM ADAMS, D. D., Madison Square Church, New York City. pp. 64.

The Atlantic Monthly, August and September, 1866. “The Chimney Corner,” VIII., IX.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, December, 1866. "Our Amusements."

A Sermon on Christian Morals in Social Life; Preached in the Stone Church, [Cleveland, O.], March 13th, 1859. By Rev. WILLIAM H. GOODRICH. pp. 22.

The Scriptural Principle of Total Abstinence; A Sermon preached in the Central Church, Bangor, on Sunday, August 7th, 1859. By SAMUEL HARRIS. pp. 12.

In the announcement of new plans for the improvement of the New Englander, somewhat more than a year ago, it was stated that "there are grave questions relating to the Christian Life, to the subject of Amusements, for example, and to Worship, which are in danger of receiving less consideration than from their relative importance they deserve." The number and variety of the papers on the subject of Amusements, which have appeared since that sentence was written, indicate that this theme is one which demands a new discussion, if not a change of position. The literature, treating upon this subject from a Christian point of view, has been exceedingly meager and unsatisfactory. The few attempts to approach the subject by religious writers have usually taken the form of special dissuasives from particular classes of amusement as involving the soul in perils. These notes of warning have made little allowance for recreation, and have given such undue prominence to the sober side of life as to prejudice many against religion, as if it required a surrender of all entertainment. The one sidedness with which this subject has been treated is not too strongly described by Mrs. Stowe:

"With all the telling of what the young shall not do, there has been very little telling what they shall do. The whole department of amusements-certainly one of the most important in education-has been by the church made a

sort of outlaws' ground, to be taken possession of and held by all sorts of spiritual ragamuffing; and then the faults and short comings resulting from this arrangement have been held up and insisted on as reasons why no Christian should ever venture into it."*

And Mr. Vincent says:

“We have heard more about keeping unspotted from the world, than of going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature. More about coming out and being separate, than of knowing the truth which shall make us free. More of separating wheat from tares, than of leavening lumps. The false instinct of self-preservation, which sent the Romanist into cloisters and convents, and tore him from the sweet sanctities of domestic life, has perpetuated itself more than some of us think in Protestant thought and church legislation. And in nothing has this tendency revealed itself more distinctly than in the matter of amusements. For amusement, having the effect to make men feel kindly toward the world, and, more readily than duty, falling in with human inclination, has been regarded as unsafe, and therefore as a thing to be kept at arm's length by the church, and admitted to her folds only under the strictest surveillance, and in gyves and handcuffs."t

The time of reaction seems now to have come; the subject is fairly open for debate, and the disputants are ranging themselves; on one side, those who claim to exercise Christian liberty; and on the other side, those who fear the evil tendencies of pleasure-seeking, in respect both to religious life and mental culture.

While all Christians must agree that immoral and sinful pastimes are invariably to be disallowed and condemned, two questions are constantly recurring, which open the way for difference of opinion; first, what things are immoral and forbidden by scripture; and, secondly, whether certain recreations, not positively and forever forbidden, are universally inexpedient.

It has been specially characteristic of Puritan, Methodist, and Moravian churches, to discountenance amusements, particularly those amusements which are most universal and captivating; while periods of religious awakening and reform almost invariably give rise to crusades against fashionable entertainments and vain recreation.

It must be conceded, however, that in respect to certain amusements, as dancing and games involving chance, there

* Atlantic Monthly, p. 339.

+ Essay, p. 6.

have been great fluctuations of sentiment; and even now changes of opinion are going on, mainly in the direction of giving greater liberty for individual judgment and action. Where forty years ago parents sought to shield their children from evil by a strict regime, and the utter prohibition of certain recreations, the attempt is now made to protect another generation of children from evil by qualified indulgence in amusements deemed innocent in themselves, but harmful if carried to excess.

Some illustrations of these fluctuations may help our further discussion of the general subject.

In President Edwards's noted sermon on Joseph, he takes to task the young people who, after the great revival, had begun to set up again their old custom of frolicking, and spending the greater part of the night in it, in a disorderly manner; evidently not taking exception to dancing under all circumstances, but rather to the way in which it was practiced late in the night, to the neglect of family prayer, and violation of family order.

Connecticut customs of the last century are thus described by a recent historian :

"In that middle period between the strict Puritan times and the Revolution, dancing was a common diversion of young people. Balls and midnight revels were interdicted; but neighborly dances, either with or without a fiddler, often a part of the company singing for the others to dance,-contra-dances, reels or jigs, improvised on some oak floor in kitchen or hall,-ending in a treat of nuts, apples, and cider, these were allowable pastimes for the winter evenings. Dancing, also, to a greater extent and with more elaborate display, was permit ted, as we have seen, at weddings and thanksgivings, doubtless, also, at other large and ceremonious entertainments, but without the objectionable accompa niment, except in very rare instances, of late hours. An ordination ball, strange as it may sound, was allowed in some places as a finale to the festivities on the occasion of settling a minister; but there is no proof that this enormity was ever perpetrated in Norwich."*

The customs of people a generation later are indicated by some notes in the diary of a Senior in Yale College in 1796. "I think that, upon the whole, I have never spent a vacation more agreeably than the last. I have attended four

*

* *

balls, or, more properly, one ball and three dances." And,

*Caulkins' History of Norwich, p. 331.