Sermons, addresses, and papers of Rev. Luther Leonidas Hill

Preface

MORE than twenty-five years have elapsed since the final dismissal of Rev. Luther Leonidas Hill, and the issues and controversies in which he was engaged have lost their living interest and belong to the student of history. There was in him an innate simplicity and aloofness that would not look with favor upon the publication of this sketch of his life and which will render the drawing of a portraiture the more difficult.

The occasion of the publication is a request from the historical department of his state; and the cause, a hope that some thought or accomplishment of his may be set free, as when a flint strikes steel, which falling upon the mental tinder of posterity, may stimulate an ancestral pride and cause the springing up of an ambitious flame to illuminate a studious path and help onward a ad upward.

The publication is an offering to his descendants by those who knew him best and loved him most, and is never to be commercialized by a sale or monetary consideration.

Benjamin Franklin 75

Education 84

The Will 96

Part Three — Papers Was Not the Best Possible Model Adopted in

the Creation of Man ? 105

How Did Sin Produce Death? 107

How Does the Death of Christ Give Life? ... Ill

Our Critic Criticised 117

A Rejoinder 121

The Diaconate 125

The Diaconate 134

Wrong Righted ; . 141

Ego's Views of the Phenomena of Life Reviewed 147

Evolution 151

Mr. Beecher's Lecture Reviewed 156

An Anodyne for False Fears 163

The Eastern Question 167

6 CONTENTS

Lawmakers 176

The Law's Delays 179

Carrying Concealed Weapons 183

Why the Difference? 186

Baldwin v. Kouns 190

The Equitable Side of Murder 197

Guiteau 199

Other Points in the Guiteau Case 203

The Trial of Guiteau 210

Guiteau 215

"Justitia Virtutum Regina" 220

A Subject of Great Public Interest 229

Weights Off in the Race of Life 234

The Suitable Education for the Negro 239

Part Four — Lktt^rs To Miss Laura Croom 249

To Governor Thomas Seay 264

To Mrs. Amelia Lyons 268

To His Wife and Children 272

Appendix

Address of William W. Hill 277

Sermon of William W. Hill 290

ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing Page

Luther Leonidas Hill Title

"Rosemary Hill," the Country Home of L. L.

Hill 29

The Children of L. L. Hill 75

The Home of L. L. Hill, Montgomery, Ala. . . 105

Laura Croom Hill 249

William Wallace Hill 278

AN APPRECIATION

H. H. McNeiUt, D.D., Pastor, Methodist Episcopal Church, South

Marianna, Fla., Jan. n, 1918.

Dr. Luther L,. Hiu,,

Montgomery, Ala.

Dear Luther: I am glad that you have decided to publish a brief sketch of the lives of your father and mother, and a collection of your father's writings. Such a book will be a decided contribution to Alabama history.

I am confident that I knew your father more intimately than any one now living — the inwardness of him. His steadfast friendship and affectionate regard is still a potent factor in my life. What Paul was to the young Timothy your father was to me in the beginning of my ministry. He received me in to his home, which I often visited, as he would greet his son. His conversations were of a high order, always instructive and edifying, duly interspersed with rich humor of which he had a great fund. I used to wonder at the great variety of subjects with which he was familiar, the details of which he would discuss with accurate knowledge. It was generally conceded that his intellect and ripe scholarship had no superior in the state. His vocabulary was quite extensive and at his ready command. He was forceful in debate, the knight that stood before him must be gallant and agile. He wrote much for newspapers and other periodicals, both religious and secular, and I am delighted at seeing them again in print. His subjects ranged from abstruse problems in theology and metaphysics to the life and habits of the pigeon and he discussed them all with remarkable erudition.

He was noble and generous of soul, knightly in his bearing, patient with the faults of his fellows, severe on their hypocrisies. He was decided in his convictions, holding them at all costs. He was progressive, and aggressive when there was need — a hard fighter when the fight was on.

H. H. McNehj,. 9

EDITORIAL

(From Montgomery Journal)

Rev. Dr. L. L. Hill, Sr., whose serious illness was mentioned in Saturday's Journal, died Saturday night about 11 o'clock. If he had lived till July Dr. Hill would have celebrated his seventieth birthday. He was a man of vigorous mind and body, an honest, honorable, upright man in all the relations of life; and was a true man, devoted to his family and friends, and was firm in his purpose and convictions. He was well informed and a shrewd observer, and was a frequent contributor to newspapers, always writing clearly and forcibly. He was not only logical, forceful in expression and a close reasoner, but was philosophical, and judicial in tone and temper. He was a man of rare attainments, varied talents, and a cultivated mind, and as an evidence of the esteem in which he was held in the community his funeral yesterday was one of the largest witnessed in this city in many years. No man was more scrupulously just, or more uncalculatingly generous and charitable. Kind, just and conscientious he did not bear malice, and bowed not to power, but was ever inclined to the side of the weak. Perhaps this caused him to be misunderstood by many, but those who knew him best loved and respected him most.

DEATH OF REV. h. I,. HIU,

(From Montgomery Advertiser)

The serious illness of this old and respected citizen of Montgomery has been a subject of deep concern to a host of friends in the city for some days, and at n o'clock last night the fatal summons came. Dr. Hill was one of the oldest residents of Montgomery, having lived in the city and county for over forty years. He was a man of fine ability and but for a defect in hearing would have easily ranked among the fine speakers of the day. As a writer he was close in reasoning and vigorous in expression. He was warm-hearted and

II 12 Editorial

strong in his attachments. In the family circle and as a citizen he was upright and blameless. His death is a serious loss to Montgomery and the community extends to his widow and children sincere condolence in their hour of affliction.

REV. h. L. Hia, D.D. (From The Alliance Herald)

When a demagogue passes over the river, the beneficiaries of his conduct feel his loss; but when a manly man, an honest man, and a man of ability, courage and conviction is called from the busy scenes of life, it is a calamity to the community. Dr. Hill was a scholar, an orator, and a bold and fearless exponent of what he conceived to be duty and obligation. In all the trials and vicissitudes through which our people have passed, he was a prominent figure for law, order and good government. In the Church, he was a power, and his labors were blessed with remarkable success. In all the relations of life, he was true, sincere and faithful. Learned and wise, with nerve and courage to urge his convictions, he wielded an influence and power few men ever possessed; and all his efforts were for the elevation and uplifting of man and the promotion of the cause of the Master. At a ripe old age, he has been gathered to the home of the blest, leaving the heritage of an unspotted reputation and countless acts of mercy, goodness and charity to cause his crown to sparkle through eternity as a faithful steward in the vineyard of the Lord.

In this city, where the strength and vigor of his manhood were expended and the labors of his life found fruition in good works, his kindly cheer, his words of encouragement, and his wise counsel will be sadly missed, and all feel an irreparable loss.

LUTHER LEONIDAS HILL

AND

LAURA CROOM HILL

THE Hills are of Welsh descent. Their ancestors migrated to America in the Seventeenth Century. The father of Luther L. Hill, the Rev. William W. Hill, was born in the state of North Carolina, July 21, 1788. Rev. William W. Hill married Nancy Bowen, and of this union Luther L. Hill was born July 21, 1823, at Warrenton, Hyde County, N. C, the fifth of nine children. In 1829 the family moved to Alabama and located at Greensboro. Rev. William W. Hill was possessed of an extraordinary mind and though self-taught his intellectual attainments were of the highest order. His answer to the charge of "Inveighing against discipline and sowing dissension in societies" brought by the Rev. Benjamin Edge was titanic in denunciation and a Philippic of invective. After coming to Alabama be became one of the largest and wealthiest cotton growers in the state. He maintained the greatest interest in the welfare and upbuilding of his church, though his health prevented his accepting a regular charge. His dedicatory sermon of the Montgomery Methodist Protestant Church was pronounced a classic. He died at Greensboro, Ala., Oct. 10, 1849.

Nancy Bowen, the wife of Rev. William W. Hill, was born in North Carolina, Feb. 24, 1796. She was the daughter of the Quaker preacher, Rev. Thomas Bowen. She imbibed much of the piety and religious devotion of the Society of Friends which did not tolerate "places of diversion." This enabled her to have more time to cultivate her splendid mind and her natural humility exerted a great influence upon her son, an influence that he often acknowledged in public and private. She died at Greensboro, Ala., Aug. 28, 1858.

Educational advantages in those days were very inferior to what they are at this time, and as was the custom with well-to-do citizens, Rev. William W. Hill employed a tutor for his children, who was a Mr. Williams, a highly educated Scotchman. L. L. Hill passed a sickly adolescence and was kept out of school and traveled in the effort to build up his frail constitution. A great writer has said "The mind, lying fallow and remaining idle gathers strength; ignorance breeds a longing for knowledge, and of this hunger of the brain Genius is born." It was certainly so with Rev. Luther L. Hill, for his desire for enlightenment overwhelmed him and his capacity for attainment was marvellous.

We will follow what would be his wishes and what would harmonize with his pure and simple life, and write no extended eulogy, but simply record a few of his characteristics and publish some of his writings, as many are unfortunately hidden in the anonimity of journalism. He never sought applause nor public approbation. He was no trimmer, varnisher nor veneerer, but candid as light. He knew of two roads — right and wrong — and traveled only one. He never made an apology nor gave an explanation, but "left his actions and words to justify and vindicate themselves." He was six feet in height and weighed a hundred and sixty-five pounds, with a massive head and clear cut features. He possessed a large aquiline nose, sharp, piercing eyes, a closely fitting, determined mouth, and a benignant smile that mirrored a great inward soul.

In 1846 he was licensed as a deacon in the Methodist Protestant Church and his license was signed by his father. In 1848 he was married to Miss Mary Helener Walton, the daughter of a distinguished citizen of Augusta, Ga. — Mr. Thomas Walton. Of the children of this union only one, the youngest, Walton W. Hill, LL.B., born December 20, 1855, reached maturity : his death occurred April 28, 1899. In 1849 he surrendered his license as a deacon and commenced the study of law, and was admitted to the Supreme Court of Alabama, but never practiced. In 1859 he was licensed as an elder in the Methodist Protestant Church and his first charge was the Montgomery station. He soon became one of the most noted pulpit orators of his day. His mind was intensely analytic and logical. He had a cultivated sense of agreement and propriety in his dietion and his discourses were fertile in sententiousness and illustration. He was liberal, broad minded, and progressive — accorded to all the right of freedom of thought and the chivalry of discussion. The profundity of his knowledge and his intellectual scope and grasp were recognized by the university of his native state and two denominational colleges that offered to confer upon him the doctor's degree, but they were modestly declined. On account of a developing impairment in his hearing he retired from the pulpit and became a large and successful planter in Montgomery County. Of this ever-increasing deafness, shutting him out from the heaven of sound, blighting his life and shackeling his usefulness, he never complained; though his inquisitive mind was unable to fathom and explain why this misfortune was fastened upon him, and in his last hours the revelation that he soon expected was a solace.

His first wife having died in 1856, he married Miss Laura Sarah Croom, of Greensboro, Ala., February, 1861. Of the twelve children of this union, eight reached maturity: Luther L. Hill, M.D., LL.D., born January 22, 1862; William W. Hill, LL.B, born August 8, 1868; Robert S. Hill, M.D., born February 9, 1870; Bessie H. Hill (Mrs. C. H. Bartlett), born August 2, 1871; Thomas B. Hill, D.D.S., born July 20, 1873; Wiley C. Hill, LL.B., born September 6, 1876; Eugene L. Hill,

A.M., D.D., born August 2, 1878; Eaura H. Hill (Mrs. E. V. Robison), born December 20, 1881.

Few men had better insight into human nature or so correctly grasped the motives of men. The accuracy of analysis of events and happenings, and the prophetic vision of this acute and subtle brain were at times almost akin to weirdness. It might not be amiss to mention an illustrative incident. He was ever our mentor. We told him of our hopes and ambitions, and he knew of our failures and disappointments. One of his sons held a position of trust and honor in the Medical Society and told him there would be no opposition in the re-election. Within two hours he called at the office and said, "You know, being deaf, I could not hear a word, but I unexpectedly walked upon Drs. J. and S. in consultation and I read in their discomfiture that an attempt is going to be made tonight to encompass your defeat." Turning to leave he said in the words of Richelieu, "In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves for a bright manhood, there is no such word as fail." His interpretation of the conference proved eminently correct, and with joy the report was made that the injunction of the great Cardinal had been heeded.

His memory was an intellectual jewelry store, but he was modest in exhibiting his gems. If an intellectual friend introduced a fact, however long since hidden in the past, he usually recognized it as an old and familiar acquaintance.

In politics he was a Douglas Democrat and an intensely union man. Every address was flecked with union sentiment until Alabama seceded, and then he volunteered as a Confederate soldier but after a brief service was forced to retire on account of his deafness. He was an admirer of the simplicity of Jefferson, but a follower of Hamilton. With him the war ended at Appomattox. He accepted the conditions and formed a partnership with a Union soldier, Judge Charles W. Buckley, and commenced to build up his lost fortune in cotton planting. He sympathized with the negro and respected his burden. He could not endure the un- American aberrant sentimentalism of the foreign immigrants, but he had the profoundest regard for the dignity of labor. His sympathies touched the two extremes of human life and were as wide as want. They stretched downward to the lowest in the valley of humiliation, and reached upward to the loftiest peak of exaltation : none were beneath, none were above them. They were too noble to allow envy to take the place of deserved admiration. They were too just and generous to allow abject poverty, misfortune, or the loathsomeness of disease to place a human being beneath them, for he "spanned with divine sympathy the hideous gulf that separates the fallen from the pure." This was illustrated in an article saturated with charity and forgiveness that he wrote to mitigate an overzealous prosecution of the fallen women of Montgomery.

The profundity of his knowledge and his versatility were illustrated in his teaching of his children. About seven in the evenings they assembled around a large table. Varying according to their ages, the instruction ranged from elementary branches to the translation of the Latin and Greek classics and higher mathematics. He was conversant with all and capable of teaching all. No semblance of dissimulation would be tolerated and it was too hazardous to attempt, for he was the keenest of critics. The work finished, there was usually a second supper with all abandonment of the restraint of relentless insistence, and a joyous communion of heart and soul into which he unreservedly entered. With a fine, natural sense of humor, cultivated and enriched by a perfect familiarity with the writings of Mark Twain, Moliere and other humorists, he was genial, entertaining and companionable. He was the kindest and most sympathetic of fathers, and upon the altar of his children's welfare and betterment he burned the incense of his love. Of life-long Christian faith, no breakfast was ever eaten nor supper served that was not followed by family prayer in his household.

After a brief illness on the evening of the 20th day of May, 1893, he realized that the end was approaching, "that there could not fall again within his eyes the trembling lustre of another dawn," and that the strong hand that piloted his family destinies was dropping from the helm and, by his leaving, soon there would be inevitable changes and readjustments. Calling his family around him he accentuated unity and harmony, relating the fable of "The Father and Sons," and as he closed with a prayer, panoplied with a Christian faith, he walked serenely into the "dark valley of the shadow," with his pathway lighted by the torch of generous deeds.

Any attempt to translate into words the life of Luther L. Hill which ignores the contributory factor to be found in Laura Croom Hill, will of necessity be incomplete. To separate his life from hers would be to rob the oak of its foliage, to extract the fragrance from the hyacinth, or leave the violet without the richness of its color. Their lives were inseparable, and her influence expressed itself through him.

On December 9th, 1840, Laura Croom Hill was born in Greensboro, Ala. She was the twelfth child of Wiley Jones Croom and Elizabeth Holliday, and was a descendant of the Crooms and Holliday s of North Carolina, where both of her parents were born. From this sturdy English ancestry, which prided itself upon its family history and gave much time to searching after family connections and tracing relationships, she inherited her strength of mind, love of education, and integrity of character.

In 1844 her mother died, and five years later her father left her an orphan intrusted to the tender care of her beloved sister, the late Mrs. Eliza Tunstall, who had her thoroughly educated at the famous Hubert Lefabre School in Richmond, Va., and the no less noted school of the East, The Abbott School of New York City.

After traveling extensively she returned to Greensboro, Ala., and became one of the most popular young women of Alabama. Her popularity was not confined to her associates among the young people, with whom her personal beauty and brilliancy of intellect and warmth of enthusiasm commanded attention ; but she was loved by the aged because of her reverence for and attention to them, and the children admired her because of her adaptability to their interests.

In 1858 she attended the funeral of a saintly mother, whose eight sons, bent in grief and broken in heart, stood about the open grave; and she saw for the first time the man whose destiny was to be sealed with hers for weal or for woe, for joy or for unhappiness. She was profoundly impressed with his tall and manly physique, his tender and gentle manners, and his great devotion to his mother. Not many weeks after this Luther L. Hill was talking to a number of associates on the streets of Greensboro when a street vendor of vegetables and fruits joined the party and remarked, "Miss Laura Croom is the sweetest and kindest young lady in town. She never lets me pass her home without serving the cup of coffee on the cold day and the glass of cool water on the warm day; and what she does for me she does for all others of my class." This expression of appreciation on the part of this son of toil profoundly impressed the mind of the young minister and he sought an introduction, which grew into mutual admiration and resulted in devotion, which culminated in marriage on February 27, 1861. At this point their lives were blended into a duality of personality, and it is hard to separate, in thought even, the one from the other.

The subject of this sketch was a marked illustration of the woman of the Old South. She belonged to the days when woman created gallantry and crowned chivalry. The ideas which were formulated by her mind were forceful and clear. The feelings that sprang from her heart were queenly, rich and luxuriant. The tone of her life was as pure as the liquid note of the woodlark's evening song when she calls to her mate.

Laura Croom Hill, like the wife of Thomas Carlyle, was one of the most gifted young women of her day, whose signal talents and educational advantages might have shone in the drawing-rooms of society like the blazing sapphire, but she had but one inspiration in life after her marriage and that was to make an ideal home; and to this end she placed her very being upon the altar of sacrifice — • fuel to feed the flame of her husband's genius and her children's success and happiness.

;She made love the operative law of her life and the symbolic sceptre of her authority. This principle like a flower bloomed in perpetual beauty wherever she went, and was identified not only with her happiness but her very existence ; and pertained to her soul in its highest aspirations. She accomplished things by the force of her heart energy.

For the outside world she had the kindliest feelings and greatest sympathy. Her every pulse and breath was in accord and consonance with all that was good and true; in her breast was "the touch of nature that makes the whole world kin." Her home was always open to the touch of the lonely and destitute. Jean Valjean knocked at the door of the good bishop, and, when a kind voice invited him in, he threw open the door and said, "My name is Jean Valjean; I am a galley slave. May I stay here for the night ?" The good man replied, "This is not my house, but the house of Christ; this door asks not him who enters whether he have a name, but if he have sorrow." Her home was known to all the ministers of her husband's church, who enjoyed the freest and warmest hospitality, and who came in crowds, always making it convenient to come by this oasis along the desert way of many a lonely traveler.

As a mother in the home she was ever an inspiration and incentive to her children. She exercised discipline, but it was always justice tempered with mercy that characterized her inflicted punishments. No sacrifice was too supreme to make for her children ; and her eyes was ever piercing into their lives to detect every hint of progress and development, which she hailed with a glad heart. There were times when she had to give herself to strictest economy in order to give her children advantages and enable them to prosecute their education and attain their professions, but she accepted this as a part of her lot as a mother and never let drop from her lips a word of complaint. She cheered when the battle's front became severe for her husband and he showed weariness in the fight, and pointed at her children as the incentive for renewing the effort. She w r as the idol of her children; and when her soul was slipping from earth to heaven, strong men and devoted women stood around her bed bent in sorrow. No better inscription could be found to carve upon her grave than this, "Her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." After her husband died in 1893 she became both father and mother to her three youngest children, and guided their education and guarded their future so well that she commanded respect for her wisdom and strength. She lived to see all her children settled in homes of their own and achieving a reasonable success; and enjoyed the knowledge that, out of appreciation of and love for her, five of her grandchildren bore her name. Having passed her alloted three score years and ten she sat serenely in the twilight of a life of fulfillment, "waiting for the night, watching for the light." On February 20, 1918, aware without anxiety that the end was approaching, with loving interest in others conspicuous to the last, her dismissal came, leaving as a legacy to her children the blessed memory of a character of radiant purity. Just before she "passed over the river to rest under the shade of the trees," she expressed the assurance of meeting her husband in the home of the blessed, the land of perennial Spring, for her celestial hopes, with untiring wings, had wafted her soul beyond all that was terrestrial and given her a foretaste of a destiny full of glory and immortality.

PART I SERMONS mm ' '' «$'v CHZm* f C c

E S

TO r.

RECREATIONS

Matthew 3:16 — "And, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him."

THE word translated "dove" in the text might with equal, perhaps more, propriety, be rendered "pigeon," as the latter is more comprehensive, though not so gentle and soft in sound. Many think the carrier pigeon did his first act of service to man when he returned with the olive leaf to the Ark, by which it became the emblem of peace and he the symbol of fidelity.

We are not opposed to amusements and recreations; so far from it, we commend them. If any persons more than others have a right to a happy, cheerful, and even hilarious life, God's obedient spiritual children have. It is their privilege, if indeed it is not their duty, in passing through life to

The above sermon was preached by Rev. L. h. Hill, at Snowdoun, Alabama, by request of the Christian people of that place, and is published in the Montgomery Advertiser, by the earnest and hearty request of those who heard it delivered. There were four shooting clubs in Montgomery County at the time of its delivery, and all were shortly afterwards disbanded on account of the withdrawal of their members. The presiding officer of one of the clubs said in the meeting just before its disorganization, "The sermon preached by Dr. Hill comes as a message from God that we disband our club." — Editor of Advertiser.

gather all the honey they can from the pleasurable flowers that bloom along their pathway, only leaving the poison behind. Their privileges are of the broadest latitude, covering the whole-field of pure intellectual, social, moral, physical, and spiritual enjoyments. Innocence or moderation alone bounds them. Gloom on the part of those professing religion injures them and wrongs the cause nearest their hearts by frightening away the young with the idea that they must become prematurely old and abandon the cheerful pleasures of youth to become truly and sincerely religious. The natural effect of true religion is to cheerfulize life. This is an unquestionable logical conclusion; for it is a reconciliation between man and his Maker giving him assurance of the sweetest and most precious comforts in this life and endless and unalloyed blessedness in that which is to come. Christ came not to bring a cloud but a bright sunshine to our world ; He came not to deepen its despair and gloom, but to disperse them, to give us faith and hope that should ever cheerfulize our pathway through the dark valley and shadow of death, which sooner or later all have to tread. God's providence, both in nature and grace, is always consistent with itself. A striking analogy runs through the two, and the former is often beautifully and impressively expository of the latter. Does God dress out the world in bright sunbeams, in flowers and robes of green in Spring, does He turn the forest into a grand orchestra and bid songsters of a thousand different tongues strike their Memnonian and Aeolian harps in cheerful, yea, hilarious praise, that a premature autumnal frost may fall upon the one or the silence of wintry death upon the other ?

Can it be then that He intends that faith and trust in Him, so comforting and so full of hope, shall quench the joys of the young heart and drape the spring season of life in premature winter and gloom ? As well may we infer darkness to be the natural effect of light. No, my friends, no, God would have all His children happy. Heavenly hearts above all others swell with rapturous joy. Amusements and recreations are necessary to human health, happiness and life: health of the physical, mental, social, and moral powers of man, for all the powers of man are more or less reciprocally dependent on each other. Childhood must have them, hence its marbles, hobby horse, toy horse, and ballplays. These are providentially appointed developing agencies; manhood and womanhood are more fully and perfectly developed by them. No student of the philosophy of man's make, who deserves the name, and of the mutual dependency of his powers, will question this truth; and hence the attention given by our best educators to the development of even the physical, which are the lowest powers of man — old age is more mellowed, cheerfulized and better preserved by them. Is not the setting sun more lovely with gentle winds dancing on the waving sedge, with sunbeams sporting amidst and kiss- 3 ing the sweet, gay flowers, and its own bright smiling face unveiled, than with nature shrouded and itself covered with cloud and gloom? A chord too continuously and tensely drawn will in the end lose its elasticity and snap. The existence of this necessity for amusements and recreations is of a very ancient date. Nimrod recreated in hunting, and it came down to us through the games, races, boxings, plays and entertainments of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Indeed they felt it so strongly that they imagined their gods felt it, and it was woven into their religion, and their games were instituted in honor of their gods, and quite as much to entertain them as themselves. It cropped out in the theatricals of all ages since the days of Thespis; in the tournaments and troubadour entertainments of the Middle Ages, and is presented in your theatrical, base-ball, and shooting-club plays and amusements of today. The antiquity of this necessity certainly is coeval with authentic and profane history, if not indeed with the existence of man; for Adam and Eve, even while innocent, must have the pleasant entertainment of dressing the Garden of Eden. Hence we infer from its antiquity and presence in all succeeding ages of man's history that entertainments and recreations are not accidents or mere human inventions, but are of Providential appointment; and properly refined, purified, and regulated have high and even holy ends to attain ; and consequently we are by no means opposed to them per se.