What is Religion?

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 3, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 26.

What is Religion?

THE time was when Christians eschewed dancing and card-playing. From present appearances we should not be surprised to see them introduced as accompaniments of the Wednesday evening prayer-meeting. We are told there is no harm in these things. But they are the craze of the most ignorant, vicious, and immoral members of the human family. Collect the scum and offscouring of the earth together and a pack of cards and a fiddle will be sure to appear very soon. Is there a den in this or any other city where cards are not as necessary as beer or rum? Sad compliment to the enlightenment of this boasted and boastful nineteenth century, to its refinement and tastes, that it must find the means of killing time in the imitation of the vulgar and degraded.

'But dancing is an elegant amusement, and what is there wrong about it?' Is it a thing Christians should engage in? Does it make one better? Does it bring one nearer to God? Does it develop the higher and nobler traits of character? Does it fill the prayer-meeting? Does it lead to closer communion with God? Are those who are most diligent in attendance on the card-table and the ball-room those who are ready to pray and speak in the prayer-meeting, to counsel those who are inquiring?

'But young people learn manners, and it is very important that boys and girls should know how to behave in company.' So it is, and they should learn to behave properly while young, and parents, not a dancing master, should be their teachers. Manners are quite as necessary in other places as in a ball-room, however, and if certain young gentlemen whom we see at church and Sunday-school who are full of etiquette, whose bows are faultless and the smiles perfection itself, are fair specimens, we want no child of ours, not any in which we feel an interest, to know anything of etiquette. The great rules of good conduct, reverence for God and respect for man, they have not learned, and, if they have any manners worth speaking of, they carefully leave them at home on Sundays, when they are almost as useful as at any other time.

It seems to us that a very good test of the character of a calling or amusement is the character of those who are most devotedly attached to it, and the effects it produces. Examine the dance and the card-table. Do you find the most earnest, devoted followers of Christ there? Do inquirers after Christ flock there? Do they lead to Christ? How many converts come from the ball-room and the card-table? If they lead not men to Christ, then they are not aids to the growth of the soul in grace and knowledge of the truth.

Religion, if a mere matter of form, can have little influence on the life. If it consists in the adoption of certain principles of action, it must, as far as those principles differ from those formerly acted upon, change the conduct and lead to a different life. If the Christian and he who professes no religion, live and act alike, in what do they differ? Why, then, not admit to the church, without question, all who are willing to assist in paying the expenses? But to us it seems that all Christ's teachings, as well as those of the apostles, makes it plain that the Christian is not to follow the example of the world, but to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Jesus; that he is to so live that the world may know that he is a follower of Christ; that he is to eschew all those things that do not further the interests of Christ's kingdom; that he is to watch and pray lest he enter into temptation; that to him it must not be enough that a thing is bad; it must be good. He should be a living epistle, read and known of all men; a bright and shining light and way-mark for the kingdom of Heaven. These principles must influence his whole life, not simply send him to church Sunday and once in a while to prayer-meeting. He must know as much of the Bible as of the last novel—and how many professors of religion do not! The Bible must be to him a higher authority than Shakespeare, and he will much prefer to hear it quoted from the pulpit than to being treated to the great dramatist's lucubrations. The way of life is straight and narrow, and we do not believe the traveler will be able to find room for much baggage, and we imagine few Christians will place among their treasures a pack of cards, a violin and a series of opera tickets. It would be well for every professing Christian to thoughtfully consider these matters and to decide, asking God for light and guidance, whether he can engage in these things or not.

The church is weak through following the world. It grovels in the dust, begging for friends to carry on its work, giving entertainments that would be just as appropriate in a Buddhist temple as in a church, and engaging in or encouraging questionable means of obtaining money, means that Christians should be ashamed of. Is this religion? Is this serving God?—Ottawa Republican.