Tracts of the American Tract Society - General Series #266797

The following arguments have frequently been adduced in favor of fashionable amusements.<br><br>1. That they are not forbidden in Scripture, and must consequently be innocent.<br><br>2. That many professed Christians indulge in them.<br><br>3. That, when not carried to excess, they become a means of relaxation, and give additional relish to retirement and religious duties.<br><br>4. Some, not altogether satisfied with these arguments, adopt a more specious kind of reasoning. They allow and apparently lament the unhappy tendency of fashionable amusements, but conclude that the evil is past all remedy. People, say they, will have their recreations. Should they be persuaded to relinquish these, they would probably adopt others still more extravagant and hurtful.<br><br>To the first of these arguments it is replied, that there are many things not particularly forbidden in Scripture, which are, nevertheless, contrary to the obvious spirit of its precepts. We are not forbidden, in so many words, to set our neighbor's house on fire; yet nobody imagines that the wilful perpetration of such a deed is no crime. We reason, in this case, from the general tenor of Scripture, which requires us to respect the property and happiness of our neighbor. Precisely so must we reason in other cases, in which the Scriptures are not explicit. It was never meant that the Scriptures should particularly specify and name every crime of which men would be guilty.