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Closing the Door of Temptation, August 20
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
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John 2:15
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Between the associations of the followers of Christ for Christian
recreation, and worldly gatherings for pleasure and amusement, will
exist a marked contrast. Instead of prayer and the mentioning of Christ
and sacred things, will be heard from the lips of worldlings the silly
laugh and the trifling conversation. The idea is to have a general high
time.
Worldly pleasures are infatuating; and for their momentary enjoy-
ment many sacrifice the friendship of Heaven, with the peace, love, and
joy that it affords. But these chosen objects of delight soon become
disgusting, unsatisfying.
Some of the most popular amusements, such as football and boxing,
have become schools of brutality.... Other athletic games, though not
so brutalizing, are scarcely less objectionable because of the excess
to which they are carried. They stimulate the love of pleasure and
excitement, thus fostering a distaste for useful labor, a disposition to
shun practical duties and responsibilities.... Thus the door is opened to
dissipation and lawlessness, with their terrible results.
The true Christian will not desire to enter any place of amusement
or engage in any diversion upon which he cannot ask the blessing of
God. He will not be found at the theater, the billiard hall, or the bowling
saloon. He will not unite with the gay waltzes or indulge in any other
bewitching pleasure that will banish Christ from the mind. To those
who plead for these diversions we answer, We cannot indulge in them
in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.... No Christian would wish to meet
death in such a place. No one would wish to be found there when Christ
shall come.
If we venture on Satan’s ground we have no assurance of protection
from his power. So far as in us lies, we should close every avenue by
which the tempter may find access to us.
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