Reckless Sports

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 1, 1910

THE spirit of recklessness which possesses the pleasure-loving world to-day is truly appalling. Contests on land, on the water, and in the air are marked with a recklessness which takes no account of the safety of health or the preservation of life. Football contests, motor racing, ballooning, and other equally fascinating and exciting amusements, furnish their annual toll of death. The recent races held on Long Island, in which four persons were killed and a score seriously injured, is but one of many similar records which come to us monthly.

These things are an indication of the spirit of wild unrest which is possessing the heart of the multitude. They seek for peace, for rest from the stress and turmoil of life's duties, for relief from sorrow or from goading remorse. Some desire the honor and applause of their fellows. In consequence they throw themselves recklessly into these contests. They become intoxicated with this spirit, and take risks and run chances in their blind zeal for victory, which, in too many cases, prove fatal to all their hopes. If these could but realize that their craving for rest, and their pursuit after pleasure, could find satisfaction in God, what a revolution would be made in their lives! The world can afford no peace save such as comes through pleasant surroundings and favorable material conditions; but the peace of God passeth all understanding. It depends alone upon a living connection with the Infinite. It appeals to the heart with the greatest sweetness in times of trial and difficulty. This is the peace which the world needs.