p. 82 | M. E. STEWARD by M. E. Steward

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 16, 1875

M. E. STEWARD

By M. E. Steward

Croquet.

I am glad to see croquet playing mentioned in a recent number of our paper. Surely we who are living in the great day of God’s preparation have no time to lose. Those who have so great and thorough a victory to gain in so short a time should not be satisfied to spend any precious time in anything that is merely harmless. We should have an ambition to make every minute useful if possible, and to see that each one is lived the best it could be. But is croquet playing entirely harmless? Does it not strengthen emulation, selfishness, &c.? and dare we now, just at the time of the end, cultivate the fruits of the flesh (Gal. 5: 20) in the smallest degree? It is “the little foxes that spoil the vines.” We may never have an opportunity to put away our faults and form right characters by great efforts; it must be done by ceaseless and decided attention to these little things.

While an invalid, six or seven years ago, I became interested in playing croquet; and although I never played as much as many, I can say, from experience and observation, that no one can become much interested in playing it without being more or less charmed. I knew a minister who was much opposed to the game until he had been induced to engage in it a few times, when he became nearly infatuated by it. The excitement attending it is of the same nature as that connected with backgammon (which I also played at that time) and checkers. These, we learn from the testimonies, the Lord does not wish his people to engage in. They act as a mental stimulus. People often become so attached to backgammon that when prevented from playing in the evening, as usual, they will sit up to indulge their mental craving after the company has retired. Is not this something like a drunkard’s longing for his accustomed dram? Novel reading has a similar effect. Each of these things give an unhealthy tone to the mind, unfitting it to love the truth.

Dear young friends, let us strive after healthful conditions of body and mind; for we “are bought with a price,” and let us try to “glorify God in our body and in our spirit which are God’s.” The Lord help us who are older to be very careful and “make straight paths for our feet.” I wish that you could fully realize the importance of having a principle of your own. It is a time of great peril. Parents and friends may feel the deepest anxiety about your present course and final salvation, yet remember, “though Noah, Daniel, and Job” were in the land, “they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters.” Eze. 14: 20.

Go to God in prayer, and to his word for help; set your faces as a flint toward Heaven; continually strengthen your resolutions and efforts to do right in all things, let others do as they may. Heaven will then be on your side, and though evils and perils increase continually around you, you are always safe; yes, and you will be held safely in the hand of Him whom you serve when “the earth is utterly broken down,” “and shall be removed like a cottage,” and the heavens depart as a scroll.

M. E. STEWARD

Battle Creek, Mich.