Christian Festivity

breezes play, and sunbeams glitter, and dew-besprinkled flowers shed their varied perfume on the air. In the Acts of the Apostles you find not only a purer religion, but more of common-sense and manliness, than in the history of the Fathers.

We fall into a great mistake if, while we seek in the Scriptures and by prayer for direction in matters of faith, and the larger turning-points of life, we leave smaller affairs, such as our feasts, our company, and recreations, to the arbitrament of chance, or the example of the world. “In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.” “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” It is an unspeakable privilege to be permitted to run into our Redeemer’s presence with the minor anxieties of life, as well as with the great concerns of eternity. In this very thing lies the distinctive peculiarity of a child’s position, as distinguished from that of a stranger. Only on the great things may the stranger approach the king; but in everything the appeal of a child is welcome to the Father. “Casting all your care on him; for he careth for you.”

Avoiding for the present the question regarding the dispensation of the Lord’s Supper, and the relation which it bore in primitive times to the common meals of the disciples, we shall endeavour to concentrate attention on the common meals themselves, and the manner in which Christians then enjoyed them. “They did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.” But a preliminary to this gladness in eating their own food, was a liberal contribution for the comfort of poorer brethren, according to the narrative immediately preceding. Not indeed by a community of goods, for it was optional with each proprietor whether he should retain his property, and even when it was sold, the proceeds were distributed by himself according to his own judgment of the claimant’s need, — not by a community of goods, but by a great and general generosity, the believers in Christ who possessed substance had satisfied the poor with bread. This is a necessary ingredient in the gladness with which a Christian enjoys the plenty that may have fallen to his lot. The Master reminded us, “The poor ye have always with you;” and he meant that the grace of liberality should not die out of our lives for want of exercise. But, supposing this duty accomplished, or rather this privilege enjoyed, — the larger of the two blessings, that of giving to our brethren who are in need, the question remains, What is it to eat our common meals with gladness of heart, and how may that pleasure be fully and habitually obtained?

Although the Lord’s Supper was more frequently administered, and in more close proximity to family meals than would be possible or suitable now that the Christian community has grown so great, it is evident that here in the latter clause it is not the religious ordinance, but the common meal that is signalised as having been simple and joyful. Here the footsteps of the flock have been marked in history for us: by this way they went, when they met together to eat their daily bread.

Some may think this is a matter on which examples and instructions from the Christian Scriptures are not required: some may suppose that eating and drinking is the concern of man as such, and provided for in the laws of nature. But the Scriptures do claim the control of this matter, and lay down rules for its conduct. We need Divine guidance even on this natural process. Even here we lack wisdom, and should ask it of the Father, who giveth to all men liberally.

Providing, preparing, and partaking of food, is a very important work in the life of man. A very large proportion of our time and energy is necessarily devoted to it. The three allied questions, What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed? are legitimate questions for humankind: they are not evil in themselves; they become evil only in their excess, and when they usurp the place of greater interests. It concerns us much to do in a right way and a right spirit those necessary acts which occupy a large proportion of our time and energy.

They did eat. These ancient Christians were not hermits. They did not deny themselves their necessary food, or the company of their kind. In particular, they enjoyed their food more by enjoying it together. They acknowledged and fell in with that instinct of nature, which craves cheerful company and conversation at table. They did not denounce and desert convivial meetings. The sight of a friend’s face and the sound of his voice while we eat, are good gifts of God as well as the bread that sustains us, and should be received with thanksgiving. It is neither the aim nor the effect of true religion to thwart the affections and instincts of nature. Grace comes not to destroy these appetites, but to fulfil: it comes not to forbid their use, but to purify them from the abuses that sin has introduced. A convivial meeting is an object of dread, particularly to Christian parents in our land and day; but it is not in itself evil; in as far as it retains its etymological meaning, eating together, behold, it is very good. It is good in its origin, and it may be good again, when the various abominations that the god of this world has associated with it shall have been brushed away. In convivial meetings the earliest Christians did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, before luxury corrupted them; and in convivial meetings Christians might yet enjoy the cheerful society in eating and drinking, which conduces to health as well as to happiness, if all intemperance, and frivolity, and licentiousness, were banished from the board.

One good reason for eating our bread with gladness is that we have bread to eat. An additional cause of joy may be found in the fact that a self-acting machinery has been set up in the constitution of our nature, which reminds us when nourishment is needed, and compels us to take it at the proper time. If this had been left dependent on our memory and faithfulness, it would have been grievously neglected. It is not necessary that we should painfully remember the necessity of sustenance for our bodies, and live in fear lest life should through neglect be lost. A watcher has been placed within our own being, like the ambassador of another sovereign within our own capital, whose business it is to see the needful food administered at the needful time. That sentinel is faithful, and powerful: he never sleeps: and he lacks not compulsitor of pain to enforce his commands if we should be slow to obey. Hunger seems the twin brother of conscience; the one watching for the health of the body, the other for the well-being of the soul: both are gifts of God, and both invested with authority over us, for our own good.

These grounds for gladness in eating our daily bread are common to all: but there are other reasons which belong to Christians as such. Those who have obtained peace with God through Christ the Mediator, have not less, but more enjoyment in their food than other men. Instead of merely gathering their sustenance from the ground like cattle, they enjoy communion with the Father of their spirits every time they eat. To give thanks and ask the blessing by one voice at the social meal, constitutes the framework through which that communion in spirit seeks expression. It is the living gratitude in Christian hearts that has thrown out these seemly expressions; but the presence of the form does not necessarily prove that the substance continues to dwell within it. These articulate formulas of piety are like the shells which molluscs throw out: but the shell, when once it has been produced by the energy of life, may remain, symmetrical and beautiful, after the living creature has wasted all away. Do not despise the external forms; but see that there be life within them. Let there be filial confidence in a giving God while you enjoy your food, and that emotion trembling in the heart will find or frame fit channels through which it may flow.

Singleness of heart accompanied the gladness; and in point of fact, wanting that companion, the gladness itself would soon disappear. “A double- minded man is unstable in all his ways;” and even in the matter of eating and drinking in the company of his friends, the shreds of pleasure that come and go never consolidate into a substantial joy. In very many cases, the simplicity is destroyed and the true gladness consequently lost, by a huge, burdensome, irrational luxury. The cares of the meal are sometimes as heavy as the management of a small estate. They distract and oppress the entertainer. Instead of singleness, doubleness of a very troublesome type is the occupant of his heart. One-half of his mental vision squints aside to calculate the estimation in which the elaborate festival is held by the guests. Simplicity may be marred too by the cost of the entertainment in relation to the resources of the entertainer. With a few of the wealthiest citizens the shoe may perhaps never pinch at this i spot; but with a great number of their imitators it becomes i a real burden. Some approach to simplicity in the cost of 1 entertainments might both replenish the coffers of charitable I institutions, and facilitate the settlement of tradesmen’s bills.

The ChvLrch in the House.

In relation to these matters our age and nation greatly need the old Apostolic injunction, “Add to your faith courage.” In very many cases it is courage that is needed — courage to be singular, and strength to stem the stream. But where may we expect to find the virtue that can dare to stand alone amongst men, unless in those who already have faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ? A Christian, who may obtain the breath of the Spirit in his sail, should not helplessly glide down with the stream.

Immoderately late hours do much to mar both the simplicity and the heart-gladness of social meals. That very lateness, I confess, constitutes an essential element in the kind of merriment which a vitiated appetite demands: but it is fatal to the calm, deep joy fulness which corresponds with our position as disciples of Christ, or even as the intelligent creatures of God. To turn night into day, and day into night, is not simplicity, and cannot promote real gladness. It is like the transactions within the walls of a lunatic asylum, where the opinion might prevail, that people should lie in bed while the sun shines, and be active with gas-light during the night. What would you think of the gardener w7ho should cover your green-house with thick matting till noon, and make up for the deficiency of light by burning lamps beside the flowers at midnight? You would dismiss the man as drunk or incapable. We should discharge Fashion from the management of our life, as we would discharge an inebriate from the care of our flowers or our horses. Treat yourselves as you treat your gardens. “Behold the lilies of the field, how they grow.” Young men and young women would be more like the lilies in freshness and beauty if they followed nature more closely: and they would gain as much in strength of mind, as in comeliness of person.

I have not yet alluded to that which in our country and our day constitutes by far the greatest danger in connection with festivity, — the free use, often running over into the vile abuse, of highly concentrated intoxicants. There is ground for joy and thankfulness in the comparative freedom from excess which generally characterises the entertainments of the more cultivated classes in the present day. A portion also of the humbler classes have emancipated themselves completely from the bondage of intemperance: but very large numbers, ranging from the lowest to the highest as to social position, are miserably enslaved. The numbers of this class, alas, are continually recruited from the ranks of the rising generation, through the influence of social customs, and the dangerous power of the stimulants in ordinary use. Efforts, zealous and protracted, to restrict the traffic on the one hand, and to persuade to personal abstinence on the other, have shown as yet only very limited results. An accumulation of sin and shame, of poverty and crime, proceeding from the intemperate use of stimulants, lies on the nation and the Church most appalling in the aggregate, and heartrending in the contemplation of its multiform details. Here is a subject eminently worthy of a Christian’s regard, especially at festive seasons, and in connection with social joyful assemblages. After all the efforts that benevolent men and public institutions have been able to put forth, an. evil of fearful magnitude remains, — a work of incalculable; difficulty still demands the help of all who fear God and: regard man. How shall the disciples of Christ most etfec- tually bring each his own influence to bear against this I devastating vice? I shall not presume to supply an answer. 1 The wisdom that shall answer this question seems not yet j to have come to the Church: the Church must learn to feel,, deeply the lack of wisdom adequate to the crisis, and to ask [i the supply from God. But in the meantime, failing an answer, I should count the cause half won, if each brother and sister of the Christian family were led, in godly simplicity and without passion or prejudice, to entertain the question. Questions are sometimes most precious and practically effective, although the answer cannot yet be given. When Christians shall individually and collectively cease to regulate generally their lives, and particularly their entertainments, by the mere mandate of the world’s fashion, issuing like a Delphic oracle, without a reason from an unknown God, and begin to mould their actions, great and small, by a glad, free, deliberate purpose, in a matrix constituted of the twin motives which bind heaven and earth together, — serving the Lord that bought us, and saving our brother lost; then shall the lowest point have been reached and passed, — then shall Society, like the earth after Christmas, creep gradually out of its winter darkness, and creep forward to its perfect day. These two — my Redeemer’s servant, and my brother’s keeper — are the hedges on the right and left of a believer’s path, between which, if they are kept up, he may walk through the wilderness, without fear of wandering from the way.

It is a happy thing to have a purpose, — a purpose that is pure and lovely, — that you can present to your own conscience and to God, that you can prosecute in secret without meanness, or avow in public, if need be, without shame, running through your life and bringing all into harmony. And, so far from being inappropriate if applied to the lesser and lighter enterprises of life, it is precisely in these that it contributes most to safety and satisfaction. Graver matters have a certain weight in themselves that contributes to their solidity; the lighter leaves of life need more a sustaining thread running through the whole. I call on Christians in festive seasons, and in festive companies, not to submit to the restraints of duty, but rather to enjoy freely their privilege. It is not required, it is not permitted, that you should leave Christ at the door when you enter the guest-chamber. If you leave him without when you go in to the feast, you need not expect to find him within, your Intercessor, when you enter your closet and shut the door, and pray to the Father in secret. Those who trust in Christ for the greatest things, have the right to lean on him for the least. Accept the food as the Father’s gift; accept the feast as an act of his bounty; accept the company of your kind, knit to your heart either by the bonds of nature or the bonds of grace; accept that gladness of heart which the Maker of men has connected with a social meal. It is a needful and a useful part of Christian witness -bearing in these days to exhibit meekly, but legibly, on our conduct generally, that, while the world and the things of the world are not permitted to become our masters, we are not prohibited from using them as servants; and in particular, that the “gladness,” which food eaten in congenial company imparts to a human heart, so far from being the exclusive property of the profane and careless, cannot possibly be in its integrity enjoyed by them, precisely because of their profanity and carelessness, but belongs, by the Father’s gift and the children’s unsuspecting appropriation, to the whole family of God.

The Chtirch in the Hotise.