RECREATION.
Recreation is another name for amusement. Both words express the same
idea. Recreation means to create over again, the building up of the
system when it is exhausted. Amusement primarily is said to be derived
from the halt which a dog makes in hunting, when he pauses to sniff the
air in order to see in which way the scent lies. Having done this, he
starts off again with redoubled speed. Both these words in themselves
suggest the place that the things which they signify should occupy in
life. They are for the refreshing of our strength, in order to renewed
effort.
Recreation is a necessary part of life.--There are two great laws under
which we live: the law of work and the law of recreation. Man has to
work, and to work hard, in order to live. Work also is necessary to
happiness. "He that labors," says the Italian proverb, "is tempted by
one devil; he that is idle, by a thousand." The industrious life, it
is perfectly plain (as we have shown in a previous chapter), is that
which we should all follow. But recreation is as needful in its place
as work. (_a_) This is the teaching of nature. God has made us
capable of enjoying ourselves, just as He has made us able to think, or
talk, or work with our hands. The first sign of intelligence in the
infant is a smile. The child's nature unfolds itself in play, and as
man grows up, it develops itself in many forms. The universe also is
full of joy and gladness. The sky is blue, the sea glistens, the
flowers are strewn over the earth. We speak of the waves playing on
the shore, of the shadows playing on the mountain side. All this
indicates that there is "a certain play element" that rejoices in the
world around us. (_b_) This is the teaching of experience. Unvaried
and unbroken toil becomes a sore burden; it breaks the spirit, weakens
energy, and saddens the heart. "All work and no play," according to
the proverb, "makes Jack a dull boy." There are men around us working
so hard that they have no family life, no social life, no time for
thought or for culture. They are simply cogs in a great wheel that is
ceaselessly turning round and round--wearing themselves out before
their time by excess of labor. This cannot be right. There is an
interesting tradition of St. John, the disciple of our Lord, that while
amusing himself with a tame partridge he was asked by a huntsman how he
could spend his time in so unprofitable a manner. St. John replied,
"Why dost thou not carry thy bow always bent?" "Because," answered the
huntsman, "if it were always bent, I fear it would lose its spring and
become useless." "Be not surprised then," replied the apostle, "that I
should sometimes remit a little of my close attention of spirit to
enjoy a little recreation, that I may afterwards employ myself more
fervently in divine contemplation." It is said also of a most saintly
man, Carlo Borromeo, that while engaged with some friends in a game of
chess, the question was started, what they would do if they knew they
were to die within the hour. "I would," said Borromeo, "go on with my
game." He had begun it for God's glory, and in order to fit himself
for God's work, and he would finish it. These anecdotes illustrate the
truth that recreation is a necessary part of life, and may be engaged
in with the highest object.
Recreation, therefore, is not to be regarded as an evil in itself--Men
at different times have so regarded it. (_a_) Those who have been
termed ascetics in the Church of Rome looked upon every form of
amusement as sinful. Even to smile or laugh was a fault needing severe
penance. They were "cruel to themselves," denied themselves all
earthly joy, and placed vice and pleasure in the same category. (_b_)
The Puritans also, in the time of the Stuarts, set their faces strongly
against games and recreation of every kind. They denounced all public
amusements, as Macaulay tells us, "from masques, which were exhibited
at the mansions of the great, down to the wrestling matches and
quoiting matches on the village green." (_c_) In all ages there have
been good men animated by the same feeling. Life has seemed to them so
serious as to have no place in it for mirth. Even one so saintly as
Archbishop Leighton said that "pleasures are like mushrooms--it is so
difficult to distinguish those that are wholesome from those that are
poisonous, that it is better to abstain from them altogether." Those
views have something noble in them. They spring from hatred of sin and
from realizing intensely that
Recreation is liable to abuse.--It often leads to evil. It was the
unbridled gaiety of the age, with its selfishness and sensuality, that
made the Puritans denounce amusement, though the austerity they
enforced led to dreadful consequences. Repression passed into excess.
"It was as if the pent-up sewerage of a mud volcano had been suddenly
let loose. The unclean spirit forcibly driven out by the Puritans
returned with seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and the
last state of Stuart England was worst than the first." The history of
that period shows us the mistake religion makes by frowning down all
amusements as sinful. But that some may be so is equally clear. They
are so (_a_) when they are contrary to the express commands of the Word
of God. There are pleasures which are in themselves unlawful, and
which are condemned by the divine law. These, God's children will
shun. They are forms of wickedness which they will ever hold in
abhorrence. "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride
of life," with all that the words mean, though the world may regard
them as pleasures, and engage in them as amusements, are evil before
God. But not to dwell on this, which is evident, amusements are evil
(_b_) when they unfit for work. "The end of labor," said the Greek
philosopher Aristotle, "is to rest." It is equally true that "the end
of rest is to labor." Pleasures that tempt us from daily duty, that
leave us listless and weary, are pernicious. Outdoor games, for
instance, ought to strengthen the physical frame, they ought to make us
healthy and strong and ready for work. But when carried to excess they
often produce the opposite result, and become positively hurtful. If
the Saturday's play unfit for the worship and rest of the Lord's day;
if an employer, as has been stated, has been obliged to dismiss his
clerks more than once because of their incapacity for work owing to
football matches, cricket matches, and sports generally, it is clear
that these have not been for their good; and the same may be said of
the effect of other forms of amusement, especially when carried to
excess. The amusements that send us back to toil with a lightened
heart and a vigorous mind are those only that we should engage in; all
others are detrimental, and should be shunned. (_c_) It is necessary
to say also that amusement in any form followed as the end of life
becomes specially sinful. Even the heathen moralist, Cicero, could say
"that he is not worthy to be called a man who is willing to spend a
single day wholly in pleasure." How much more truly may a Christian
feel that he "who liveth in pleasure is dead while he liveth." A life
that is simply play, that is simply amusement, is no life at all. It
is only a contemptible form of existence. "A soul sodden with
pleasure" is a lost soul. To be a mere pleasure-seeker is not the
chief end of man. Nothing grows more wearying than continuous
amusement, and no one needs amusement so much as he who is always at
it. He loses the power of real enjoyment. He has, like Esau, bartered
his birthright for a mess of pottage. He is useless to man and guilty
before God.
It is not easy to lay down distinct and definite rules in regard to
recreation--to set down and catalogue those amusements which it is safe
for us to follow, and those from which we should refrain. This has
been attempted, but not successfully! and the reason is evident. What
may be safe for one person may not be safe for another. If we are told
that an amusement has been held to be wrong, we are ready to reply that
the mere opinion of others is not binding upon us; and perhaps in our
contempt for views which appear to us bigoted and straitlaced, we rush
into the opposite extreme. The true guide in recreation is a Christian
spirit. He who possesses it will need no list of what are lawful and
unlawful made out for him. He will be better guided than by any
carefully compiled code of duty set before him. All, therefore, that
shall be attempted in this direction is to give a few general counsels
which may be serviceable.
1. We should exercise our own judgment as to what amusements are
helpful or the reverse. It has been said, "When you are in Rome, do as
the Romans do." We would rather put the adage thus, "When you are in
Rome, do _not_ as the Romans do." There are questions which majorities
may decide for us, and there are questions which every soul must decide
for itself. That everybody goes to bull-fights in Spain does not make
bull-fighting right; neither is an amusement right because it is
popular. In this, as in other matters, we must dare sometimes to be
singular. Follow not a multitude to do evil.
2. What is one man's meat is another man's poison. We are not a law
to our neighbor, neither is our neighbor a law to us. The amusement
that we find injures us, lowers our moral and spiritual tone, and
unfits us for the serious business of life, is the thing for us to
avoid, as we avoid food which some men can take with impunity, but
which does harm to us.
3. Keep on the safe ground of certainty. Whatever is doubtful is
dangerous, and had best be left alone. If we go skating, and have a
suspicion that the ice in a certain spot is weak, that is sufficient to
make us avoid it. Possibly we might pass over it without danger, but
the thought that it may be dangerous leads us to give it a wide berth.
"If you do not wish to hear the bell ring," says the proverb, "keep
away from the bell rope." There is a sufficiency of amusements which
are beyond doubt safe and satisfying, without our trying those that may
be dangerous. The best recreation often comes from change of
occupation, and there is none better than the companionship of books,
the sweet solace of music, the softening influence of art, or the
contemplation of the beauties of nature, "the melody of woods and winds
and waters." There are fountains of joy open on every side of us, from
which we may quaff many an invigorating draught, without drinking from
those which are often poisoned and polluted.
4. The pleasure that is more congenial than our work is to be taken
with caution. So long as a man enjoys his work more than his
amusement, the latter is for him comparatively safe. It is a
relaxation and refreshment, and he goes from it all the better for it;
but if a man likes his pleasure better than the duties to which God has
called him in the world, it is a sign that he has not realized, as he
ought to realize, the object for which life was given him.
5. For the question, What is the harm? substitute, What is the good?
The former is that which many ask in regard to amusements, and the very
asking of the question shows that they feel doubtful about them and
should avoid them. But when we ask, What is the good? it is a sign
that we are anxious to know what benefit we may derive from them, and
how far they may help us. That is the true spirit in which we should
approach our amusements, seeking out those that recruit and refresh us
mentally, morally, and physically.
Those are hints[1] which may be found useful. "Religion never was
designed," it is said, "to make our pleasures less." Religion also, if
we know what it means, will ever lead us to what are true, innocent,
and elevating pleasures, and keep us from those that are false, bad in
their influence, and which "leave a sting behind them." "Rejoice, O
young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of
thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of
thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring
thee into judgment." Let those who practise the first part of that
text not forget the second.
[1] I am indebted for some of them to an article in _The Christian
Union_.