Church Amusements

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 2, 1882

Church Amusements.

In a former article, I have endeavored to show that ecclesiastical entertainments to raise money for the Lord are contrary to the precepts and examples of his word and therefore they cannot please him; that they are belittling, contemptible, and often positively dishonest; that they abate the spirit of gospel benevolence in the church, and bring it under bondage to the world; that they usually involve the desecration of our places of worship; that amateur dramatics silence the testimony of the pulpit against the stage, and even promote its interests; that they turn aside the church from its legitimate calling and fritter away its time, energies and spirituality; in fine, that they blight the spiritual life and usefulness, and open the door to almost every species of carnality and worldliness. All these points can easily be fortified with the sure word of God, and God will judge those who shut their eyes to this testimony.

It remains for me to present some gospel principles for the consideration of brethren in the Lord who approve of ecclesiastical entertainments on the ground that "they make the church and religion attractive to the world, and especially to the young." They tell us truly, that—

1. "Molasses catches more flies than vinegar."

But we are dealing with men, and not flies—men who have reason and conscience. Besides, molasses kills flies. Better use bitter medicine than honeyed poison. Wholesome truth is better than pleasing error. God's command and Christ's example teach us (Jonah 3:2; Matt. 11:20-24).

2. "We must correct the impression among the young that religion is gloomy and long-faced, and that it is a sin to laugh."

So far as this impression exists, it seems to me due chiefly to these play-people of the church themselves, who have no religion at all, or just little enough to make them miserable in it; who have no joy in God's salvation, but must resort to scenes of worldly and carnal mirth for all their pleasure, and only endure the formal yoke of Christ to escape something worse hereafter. Let these ecclesiastical pleasure-lovers undertake to carry on a social prayer and conference meeting in the presence of outsiders with whom they had joined the night before in the lascivious mazes of the dance, or the carnal mirth of a church fair, and see if they would not feel blue and make religion appear blue to these spectators. A worldling working at religion is in the gloomiest business in the world; but a Christian with the fullness of the blessing of the gospel in his heart, rejoices in the unspeakable privilege.

But it does not become us to cultivate irreverence, frivolity, and folly to attract the world. We are not to turn montebanks for the amusement of this world, cultivate the laughter of fools, and endeavor to attract the world by showing how Christians can be jolly. This policy of attraction has not unfrequently been carried a little too far in ecclesiastical meetings, to the shame and grief of the godly. Christianity gives joy to the heart; but while so many millions of souls are perishing, it also inculcates an earnest, a serious, and a useful life. When David Hume complained that the Christians he met looked sad, he was told that the sight of such a man as he, was enough to sadden any one.—2 Cor. 5:13; Acts 20:18-38; Luke 19:41-44.

3. "The young people must have recreations and amusements."

Yes, and they can invent them without ecclesiastical aid. The church is not to be made a bureau of amusements for the world. It is bought with the blood of Christ to witness for him and "rescue the perishing." Work and not play, is its mission.

Christ and the apostles never dreamed that the administration of the gospel could ever be made an entertainment for the world. Read 2 Tim. 4:1-8; Tit. 2:1-15.

4. "Bishop Simpson, before the Methodist General Council, advocated church entertainments to counteract the theater and the opera."

Yes, and he might as well have advocated wine-drinking, or petty larceny. These rude dramatis in the churches whet the appetite for the real thing and swell the throng at the play-house. Probably the attendance of church members at the theater and opera has doubled since these church dramatics began, and the testimony of the pulpit against the play-house has been silenced or multiplied. A Methodist minister lately made the following public statement: "Twenty-five years ago I used to hear the Methodist Church talk of converting the world; but I have to see the world convert the Methodist Church"—sad spectacle so far as true.

Instead of "Lyceums" in the churches to get up entertainments, and "train young people to have confidence before an audience so that they can be office bearers," would it not be better to revive the old Wesleyan class-meeting? We should overcome evil with good, and not with evil (Rom. 12:21).

5. "Well, such severe Puritan views might do fifty years ago, but this is an era of progress, and you cannot run churches in that way now."

Truth is as fixed as a star, eternally. There is no progress in it. We only discover new truths, but old ones do not change. Ruin, redemption and regeneration are the same as when Paul rung them out on the ears of a perishing world. Men are born, and born again, just as they were when Christ preached to Nicodemus. God does not want audiences drawn to the church by these unbelest entertainments, and he does not want the unconsecrated pelf of the uncircumcised. The intellectual and material progress of the times is unquestionably amazing, but for its moral and spiritual progress, see God's forecast.—Matt. 24:37-42; 2 Tim. 3:1-8.

6. "Still it does seem to me that these entertainments make religion pleasing and attract the young to Christ."

They make irreligion attracting and there is no Christ in them to attract any one. They make "lovers of pleasures" but not "lovers of God." It must be the worldly and carnal element in in them that attracts carnal hearts. The play-house employs this element and "studies to please;" but the church employs the truth and Spirit and "studies to save." When we remove the offense of the Cross and please men we are not the servants of God. We convert the world not by conformity but by contrast. Whenever the church has been most holy and separate from the world it has been most triumphant in the conquest. What pleases carnal hearts cannot please God nor convert the world.

And now let me close with this solemn declaration and testimony; the churches that are pursuing this policy of attracting the world by entertainments and converting it by conformity, are repudiating the fundamental principles of Christianity, going into final apostacy, and preparing to be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. I utter this with profound convictions and heartfelt grief, present the clear confirmations of God's word, and leave to God's judgment all those who shun the light. See Rom. 12:2; Rom. 8:5-10; Gal. 1:10, 11; Gal. 5:11; 2 Cor. 6:14-18; 2 Tim. 3:4, 5; John 15:18-22; Rev. 3:14-22.—Rev. E. P. Marvin (Presbyterian).