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CHRISTIAN CARNIVALS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 13, 1869

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 33, No. 16.

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CHRISTIAN CARNIVALS.

By M. W. Howard

I LIKE the spirit of a late pastoral letter of an Episcopal Bishop. He says he will not henceforth “knowingly lay hands in confirmation upon any one who will not renounce ‘the world, the flesh, and the Devil’ in the vain amusements of life.” His church organization has heretofore been more lax than other denominations in these matters, and perhaps now they have grown ashamed of it by seeing the inconsistency held up to their view by other churches.
One, whose official position caused him to be looked upon as authority, once said to the writer, “In principle, I am quite as strict as yourself; but in practice, we have to yield some of those things; for the young people will otherwise go to other churches less rigid.” Well, the concessions were made—not in expressed words, but in that subtle way, that somehow gets disseminated without expression, and dancing and masquerading young persons were received into the church.
But I am sure that wherever these amusements are enjoyed, all spirituality, if indeed there ever was any, dies out. The form may remain, but the life is gone; for the mind is kept in such a tumult of excitement, that it is unfitted for all serious considerations. I once read of a young lady who went from a female prayer-meeting, which she had led, to a party where she danced all night. It was not mentioned in justification of the practice, for all must feel a revolt at the course, even if they admitted that she could better dance after praying, than pray after the night of dancing; even though she were acting upon a principle which I once heard a lecturer hold forth. He would have children taught at home, and elsewhere, to perform whatever they might in life be called upon to do, even to asking a blessing at table. All right, to be sure, if the motive and spirit be right; but that was not taken into consideration at all in his recommendation.
M. W. HOWARD.
Malone, March, 1869.