CHAPTER II 

 RURAL AMERICA 



THE life of the man who would do a great work must 

 be whole and integral. The only complete life that 

 this world has produced was that of Jesus Christ, which 

 reveals six major elements: play, work, worship, health, love, 

 and rest. 1 



Play: Anything that one does out of pure love. 

 Work: Anything that one does with serious effort. 

 Worship: Attuning oneself to the Infinite. 

 Health: The perfect adjustment of mind and body. 

 Love: The greatest feeling of the heart. 

 Rest: Recuperation through repose. 



Play. A study of the gospels leads one to infer that Christ 

 better than any other person realized that the play instinct, 

 next to that of self-preservation, is the strongest instinct in 

 human nature. "From early childhood to old age the spirit 

 of play runs flashing like a mountain brook through the life 

 of a man. Tossing free on the hillsides of youth or gently 

 rippling the surface in the lower valleys, it outlasts the jour- 

 ney, brightening all the way. Seldom mentioned in the records 

 of His life, but clearly leaping in the consciousness of Jesus, 

 it stands revealed in His perfect love of children, in whose 

 spontaneity and freshness of feeling He rejoiced." 2 Like 

 the great creative intellects, who have been rightly and 

 healthily sensitive to every kind of pleasure, 3 Jesus was not an 

 ascetic. He was a thorough believer in the sunshine of life 



1 This classification was suggested by the six paintings of C. S. Pearce: 

 Family, Religion, Labor, Study, Recreation, Rest. (See also " What Men 

 Live By " by Dr. R. C. Cabot.) 



2 Richard H. Edwards, " Christianity and Amusements," p. 22. 

 8 Philip G. Hamerton, " The Intellectual Life," p. 64. 



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