p. 15 | Jesting About Sacred Things

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 14, 1910

Jesting About Sacred Things

FOOLISH jesting or joking is bad enough when the ordinary affairs of life are the objects of the jest. Against this the Scripture repeatedly warns, but where men and women take the sacred things of God and turn them into jest and frivolity, the practice is certainly reprehensible. But we see a growing tendency in this direction. The sacred institution of marriage is often itself made a mock affair to add to the fun or merriment of some social gathering. The most ridiculous farce of this kind of which we have heard was recently enacted in a Lutheran college where a wedding ceremony was performed between the senior and sophomore classes, two young ladies assuming the rôles of bride and groom. Of this, even though it happened in its own denomination, the Lutheran Witness of March 31 speaks in decided condemnation:—

To all of which we say, Fie, shame! Shame on the faculty and friends who permitted the exhibition of this sacrilegious mockery. If such inexcusable jesting with holy things can occur in a Christian, Lutheran college, “in the presence of a great number of friends,” little wonder that these sacred things—marriage included—are matters of uproarious jesting among those that are without. “If the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?” Therefore it behooves Christians to be on their guard to avoid in themselves, and to bear testimony against, this insidious and dangerous transgression of the second [third] commandment.

The above incident is only in harmony with the growing spirit of irreverence which we see everywhere. With the tendency to discount Bible inspiration, so manifest among many clergymen of the present day, is it any wonder the young catch the spirit of their elders? One is the legitimate fruit of the other.