Chapter 131—Christian Recreation
While we are seeking to refresh our spirits and invigorate our
bodies, we are required of God to use all our powers at all times to
the best purpose. We can, and should, conduct our recreations in
such a manner that we shall be better fitted for the more successful
discharge of the duties devolving upon us, and our influence will be
more beneficial upon those with whom we associate. We can return
from such occasions to our homes improved in mind and refreshed in
body, and prepared to engage in the work anew with better hope and
better courage...
We are here to benefit humanity and to be a blessing to society;
and if we let our minds run in that low channel that many who are
seeking only vanity and folly permit their minds to run in, how can we
be a benefit to our race and generation? how can we be a blessing to
society around us? ...
Principles Contrasted
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. Their amusements commence in folly and end in vanity.
Our gatherings should be so conducted, and we should so conduct
ourselves, that when we return to our homes we can have a conscience
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void of offense toward God and man; a consciousness that we have
not wounded or injured in any manner those with whom we have been
associated, or had an injurious influence over them.
The natural mind leans toward pleasure and self-gratification. It is
Satan’s policy to manufacture an abundance of this. He seeks to fill the
minds of men with a desire for worldly amusement, that they may have
no time to ask themselves the question, How is it with my soul? The
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