t. John replied,
"Why dost thou not carry thy bow always bent?" "Because," answered the
huntsman, "if it were always bent, I fear it would lose its spring and
become useless." "Be not surprised then," replied the apostle, "that I
should sometimes remit a little of my close attention of spirit to
enjoy a little recreation, that I may afterwards employ myself more
fervently in divine contemplation." It is said also of a most saintly
man, Carlo Borromeo, that while engaged with some friends in a game of
chess, the question was started, what they would do if they knew they
were to die within the hour. "I would," said Borromeo, "go on with my
game." He had begun it for God's glory, and in order to fit himself
for God's work, and he would finish it. These anecdotes illustrate the
truth that recreation is a necessary part of life, and may be engaged
in with the highest object.

Recreation, therefore, is not to be regarded as an evil in itself--Men
at different times have so regarded it. (_a_) Those who have been
termed ascetics in the Church of Rome looked upon every form of
amusement as sinful. Even to smile or laugh was a fault needing severe
penance. They were "cruel to themselves," denied themselves all
earthly joy, and placed vice and pleasure in the same category. (_b_)
The Puritans also, in the time of the Stuarts, set their faces strongly
against games and recreation of every kind. They denounced all public
amusements, as Macaulay tells us, "from masques, which were exhibited
at the mansions of the great, down to the wrestling matches and
quoiting matches on the village green." (_c_) In all ages there have
been good men animated by the same feeling. Life has seemed to them so
serious as to have no place in it for mirth. Even one so saintly as
Archbishop Leighton said that "pleasures are like mushrooms--it is so
difficult to distinguish those that are wholesome from those that are
poisonous, that it is better to abstain from them altogether." Those
views have something noble in them. They spring from hatred of sin and
from realizing intensely that

Recreation is liable to abuse.--It often leads to evil. It was the
unbridled gaiety of the age, with its selfishness and sensuality, that
made the Puritans denounce amusement, though the austerity they
enforced led to dreadful consequences. Repression passed into excess.
"It was as if the pent-up sewerage of a mud volcano had been suddenly
let loose. The