p. 11 | DANGER OF LEVITY by William H. Hanby

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 10, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 28.

DANGER OF LEVITY.

By William H. Hanby

ONE may laugh himself to death and into perdition. Humor, “the saving quality of sane minds,” when it becomes levity is a very dangerous thing. The home where everything is turned into a jest is not a safe place to rear a boy or girl.

Every healthy mind enjoys a certain amount of humor. A flash of wit or a ray of fun gives a stimulus to the mind and lightens labor. It is a blessing to be able to laugh, for God gave us mirth for our good. But not fun-making, nor yet fun-hunting is the business of life. This life of ours with all its struggles and battles is a serious proposition, and the poorest preparation any youth can be sent out with is a giddy head and a frivolous heart.

In many homes the child is given amusement—nothing but amusement, everything for amusement. Its play, its books, its parties are all just for fun. When its elders are together, they do nothing but joke each other and tell funny stories. At morning, noon, and night there is one constant endeavor to do or say something amusing. This they often do under the delusion of being cheerful.

The child grows up with but one taste—that of amusement. There has been but one effort, that of entertaining the child, and keeping it, as the parent supposed, a happy child, forgetting that the poorest happiness in the world for a child is mere amusement. There has been no serious purpose suggested to the child. It has not been directed toward any earnest occupation. “O, time enough for that,” say the parents with a laugh.

The child becomes a youth. He has no abiding taste for anything, no thirst for knowledge, no strong ambition. A snatch of song, a joke, a funny story, a vocabulary of slang, fills his mind, which is but a grab-bag of fun. He wants to be entertained, he wants fun. Amusement, like a joke, is soon stale when often repeated. The boy goes far and near in search of new entertainment. He has no taste for serious reading or study, and no liking for any handicraft. He becomes a fun-hunter. After testing the less harmful amusements, he tries those having more excitement. He naturally associates with people, who, like himself, are hunting some new laugh. Directly he is far down the road that leads to where “men love darkness rather than light.”

The father and mother hold a consultation; they are uneasy. The boy is called in off the streets into his father’s office, and is told it is about time for him to “settle down.” “Settle down!” What has the boy to “settle”?—A frothy mind that loves only fun, and does not want to “settle,” and an untrained body that does not know how to “settle.” A jest is dearer than the truth, amusement sweeter than the fruits of industry. The parents wonder, “How can it be possible for a boy treated as our boy has been treated to throw his family name away with a laugh on his lips!”

In early life the child should be impressed with the seriousness of life—not its gloom. It should know its business is preparation, its play only recreation. It should hear the serious questions of life discussed around the family circle. Thus it may acquire a taste for real things, a taste for serious knowledge and earnest work.

Many of us are too prone to let our fondness for amusement at times get the better of our serious work. We talk nonsense when it should be sense, leave untold an important truth that we may tell a funny story. After all, the greatest joy comes as the reward of serious effort, and the only happiness in doing purposeful work.—William H. Hanby.