2 Timothy 3:2-5 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,… I. AMUSEMENT IS TO BE USED AS RECREATION. The clerk who has been hours at the desk, the mechanic in his shop, the student with his books, will take exercise and bring the unused muscles into play, and so reinvigorate the frame, or the weary brain will be soothed by the excitement and absorption of some game, or the mind, perplexed with life's mysteries and sorrows, will wander away into the world of imagination under the spell of some master spirit, while another will plunge into long-hidden secrets of nature revealed by our modern science, and wonderingly learn the Creator's wisdom, power, and love. But do you observe the assumption underlying this principle? The assumption is, that you are hard at work at your life's task. But now, supposing you have found, and are engaged in, your life's work, apply this principle of amusement as recreation. Nothing is lawful which deteriorates any of your powers or hinders the effectual discharge of duty. What is helpful in moderation becomes harmful in excess; amusement begun as a recreation may end in dissipation. If a man spends his holiday in toil some excursions by day and revellings at night, and returns to his work unfitted for his daily calling, he loves pleasure rather than God. Had he loved God supremely, he would have always kept in mired that he was having a holiday to fit himself for the due discharge of his God-given work; but he has thought of amuse ment for its own sake, and has been abusing it. Further, if that is unlawful which dissipates, that which corrupts is still worse. If your recreation brings you necessarily into corrupting companionships, it is thereby condemned, and it is to be renounced, II. WE MUST OBSERVE IN OUR RECREATIONS THE GOLDEN RULE OF DOING TO OTHERS AS WE WOULD HAVE THEM DO TO US. We must ask at what cost to them selves do others produce what amuses and recreates us. If your amusement demands loss of modesty, it demands what must harm you, as well as injure her who loses modesty. In the old slave days our fathers and mothers denied themselves sugar, refusing to eat the forced produce of their outraged brothers and sisters. But this principle applies still more widely, not only to woman, but to man; not only to human beings, but to animals as well; with regard to all these, we shall require that our recreation involves the shame, suffering, and ruin of none. A word should be said with regard to the waste of time involved in many harmless recreations. (A. N. Johnson, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, |
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