nature, a longing to mingle with his acquaintances and friends. Let
one be shut in with work, or sickness, or weather, for whole days at a
time, and see how hungry he gets to see some one. A recreation at a
social gathering literally makes a new being out of him. He is
recreated. It is this form of recreation that we consider here, social
recreation.


A NECESSITY.

Social recreation is a necessity in a well-ordered life. As with many
other common blessings we forget its benefits. Nor are these benefits
so evident until we see the blighting result in the life of the one who,
for any reason whatsoever, has become a social recluse. We have
known a few persons who have once been in society, but who have
allowed themselves to remain away from all sorts of gatherings, for
a number of years. In every case, the result has been openly
noticeable. They have become boorish in manners, unsympathetic
in nature, and suspicious in spirit. Thus they have grown out of
harmony with the ideas and ways of those about them, have come
to take distorted and erroneous views of affairs and of men. Man is
a composite being. Many factors enter into his make-up. He lives
not only in the physical and intellectual, in the religious and social,
in a local and limited sense, but his life expands until it touches and
molds many other characters and communities besides his own. In
all of these spheres of his influence and work on needs to be sobered
down, corrected, stimulated. In no other way is this better accomplished
than through one's very contact with his fellows in the religious
gathering, among his workmen, in the political meeting, at the assembly,
in the social gathering whenever and wherever persons may see one