a railway train sat four men playing cards. One was a judge, and two
of the others were lawyers. Near them sat a poor mother, a widow in
black. The sight of the men at their game made her nervous. She
kept quiet as long as she could; but finally rising came to them, and
addressing the judge, asked: 'Do you know me?' 'No, madam, I do
not,' said he. 'Well, said the mother, 'you sentenced my son to State's
prison for life.' Turning to one of the lawyers, she said: 'And you,
sir, pleaded against him. He was all I had. He worked hard on the
farm, was a good boy, and took care of me until he began to play
cards, when he took to gambling and was lost.'" Dr. Guthrie writes:
"In regard to the lawfulness of certain pursuits, pleasures, and
amusements, it is impossible to lay down any fixed and general rule;
but we may confidently say that whatever is found to unfit you for
religious duties, or to interfere with the performance of them; whatever
dissipates your mind or cools the fervor of your devotions; whatever
indisposes you to read your Bibles or to engage in prayer, wherever
the thought of a bleeding Savior, or of a holy God, or of the day of
judgment falls like a cold shadow on your enjoyment, the pleasures
you can not thank God for, on which you can not ask His blessing,
whose recollections will haunt a dying bed and plant sharp thorns in
its uneasy pillow,--these are not for you..Never go where you can
not ask God to go with you; never be found where you would not like
death to find you. Never indulge in any pleasure that will not bear
the morning's reflection. Keep yourselves unspotted from the world,
not from its spots only, but even from its suspicions."



IV.
DANCING.