seeing the
congested character of the town population and the need of
breathing-places for the young people and working people, looked about
for a recreation field. The only available ground is the old cemetery,
in which the earlier members of the congregation have buried their dead.
This, the only open spot in the center of the town, it has been proposed
to turn into a playground, the bodies of the dead to be disinterred and
laid reverently away in a quieter place, and the ground newly
consecrated to the needs of the living, and of the young. The action
contemplated by this fine old church is emblematic of the modern spirit.
Christianity is no longer a mere reverence for death and the other
world. But it is an energetic service to the young, and the working
people, in this present world. It is no longer a solemn reverence for
the salvation of the individual soul in a heaven unseen, but it is a
social service, no less serious, unto the living and unto the young and
the employed.

Certain modern sports, such as baseball, are free from the corruption
which has attached itself to horse-racing and pugilism. This corruption
is not in racing a horse, or punching an opponent. It is in the
dishonesty of the race, for horsemen believe that "there never was an
honest horse-race," and the followers of the prize ring are constantly
suspicious that the fight will be "fixed." The first question they ask
after the decision of the referee is generally, "Was it a frame-up?" The
moral power of baseball, tennis, football and the other most popular
sports, is in the confidence that the game is fairly played. This
fairness of the game is the widest extended school of ethical culture
that the American and British population know. Honorable recreation
trains in courage, manliness, co-operation, obedience, self-control,
presence of mind, and in every other of the general social virtues. It
makes men citizens and good soldiers when need comes. This was the
meaning of the remark of the Duke of Wellington, when, after the
conquest of Napoleon, he returned to view the playground at Eton, and
said, "Here the Battle of Waterloo was won."

For the building up of a community, therefore, the promotion of
recreation is an essential. Just as necessary as the providing of common
schools for all the people, is the provision of public play-grounds for
all the people. As many as are the school houses so many, generally
speaking, should be the play-grounds