h
pleasure" is a lost soul. To be a mere pleasure-seeker is not the
chief end of man. Nothing grows more wearying than continuous
amusement, and no one needs amusement so much as he who is always at
it. He loses the power of real enjoyment. He has, like Esau, bartered
his birthright for a mess of pottage. He is useless to man and guilty
before God.

It is not easy to lay down distinct and definite rules in regard to
recreation--to set down and catalogue those amusements which it is safe
for us to follow, and those from which we should refrain. This has
been attempted, but not successfully! and the reason is evident. What
may be safe for one person may not be safe for another. If we are told
that an amusement has been held to be wrong, we are ready to reply that
the mere opinion of others is not binding upon us; and perhaps in our
contempt for views which appear to us bigoted and straitlaced, we rush
into the opposite extreme. The true guide in recreation is a Christian
spirit. He who possesses it will need no list of what are lawful and
unlawful made out for him. He will be better guided than by any
carefully compiled code of duty set before him. All, therefore, that
shall be attempted in this direction is to give a few general counsels
which may be serviceable.

1. We should exercise our own judgment as to what amusements are
helpful or the reverse. It has been said, "When you are in Rome, do as
the Romans do." We would rather put the adage thus, "When you are in
Rome, do _not_ as the Romans do." There are questions which majorities
may decide for us, and there are questions which every soul must decide
for itself. That everybody goes to bull-fights in Spain does not make
bull-fighting right; neither is an amusement right because it is
popular. In this, as in other matters, we must dare sometimes to be
singular. Follow not a multitude to do evil.

2. What is one man's meat is another man's poison. We are not a law
to our neighbor, neither is our neighbor a law to us. The amusement
that we find injures us, lowers our moral and spiritual tone, and
unfits us for the serious business of life, is the thing for us to
avoid, as we avoid food which some men can take with impunity, but
which does harm to us.

3. Keep on the safe ground of certainty. Whatever is doubtful is
dangerous, and had best be left alone. If we go skating, and have a
suspicion that the ice in a certain spot is weak, that is s