Sports & The Christian
Letting Christ Be Our Example
SPORTS & COMPETITION (PART 1)
"RECREATION AT THE AVONDALE SCHOOL"
Thought Nugget #35
From the writings of Ellen G. White
Presented by Rodney A. Brown Sr.
The Union Conference Record dated January 1, 1900, carried an announcement of plans for the dedication of the Avondale Health Retreat on December 27, and stated that it would be open for boarders December 28 and be fully prepared to treat the sick on January 1, 1900.
RECREATION AT THE AVONDALE SCHOOL
The Avondale school opened its fourth year on Thursday, February 1, 1900, with more students than any previous year. Ellen White addressed faculty and students with appropriate remarks for the occasion, based on the character of Daniel, a man who had a well-defined purpose in his heart that he would not dishonor God by even the slightest deviation from the principles of righteousness. The noticeable change in the faculty was in the Bible teacher; A. T. Robinson had been appointed to that post. The prospects were good for a profitable school year. But there is an enemy who is constantly alert to divert that which is planned as a benefit into a drawback, and this showed up on April 11, the day set aside as the first anniversary of the completion of College Hall.
E. R. Palmer and C. B. Hughes, principal and business manager, respectively, planned for the day what they thought to be appropriate--a morning service at which Ellen White was invited to address students and faculty, and in the afternoon various recreational games, including cricket for the boys and tennis for the girls. Faculty members and students joined in raising money with which to purchase the equipment. Other games, as remembered by Ella White Robinson included three-legged races; eating apples suspended from a string, with the players' arms tied behind them; carrying eggs in a teaspoon in a knee race, etcetera.
The students enjoyed the day very much, and at the close of it felt very grateful toward me, especially, for planning such a pleasant time. You know the Australians very much enjoy holidays and sports. When Mark Twain visited Australia, he found this such a characteristic of the people that he exclaimed, "Restful Australia, where every day is a holiday, and when there is not a holiday, there is a horse race."
After giving her morning address, Ellen White returned to her Sunnyside home and her work. But "during the following night," as she was to write later, "I seemed to be witnessing the performances of the afternoon."
The scene was clearly laid out before me, and I was given a message for the manager and teachers of the school. I was shown that in the amusements carried on, on the school grounds that afternoon, the enemy gained a victory, and teachers were weighed in the balances and found wanting.
The students who engaged in the grotesque mimicry that was seen, acted out the mind of the enemy, some in a very unbecoming manner. A view of things was presented before me in which the students were playing games of tennis and cricket. Then I was given instruction regarding the character of these amusements. They were presented to me as a species of idolatry, like the idols of the nations.
There were more than visible spectators on the ground. Satan and his angels were there, making impressions on human minds. Angels of God, who minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, were also present, not to approve, but to disapprove. They were ashamed that such an exhibition should be given by the professed children of God. The forces of the enemy gained a decided victory, and God was dishonored. He who gave His life to refine, ennoble, and sanctify human beings was grieved at the performance.
Hearing a voice, I turned to see who spoke to me. Then with dignity and solemnity One said, "Is this the celebration for the anniversary of the opening of the school? Is this the gratitude offering you present to God for the blessings He has given you? The world could render as acceptable an offering on this memorial occasion. The teachers are making the same mistake that has been made over and over again. They should learn wisdom from the experiences of the past. The careless, godless world can offer an abundance of such offerings as these, in a much more acceptable manner."
Turning to the teachers, He said, "You have made a mistake the effects of which it will be hard to efface. The Lord God of Israel is not glorified in the school. If at this time the Lord should permit your life to end, many would be lost, eternally separated from God and the righteous."
In her diary she noted, "The whole transaction was presented to me as if I was present, which I did write out." She later declared:
The Avondale school was established, not to be like the schools of the world, but, as the Lord revealed, to be a pattern school. And since it was to be a pattern school, those in charge of it should have perfected everything after God's plan, discarding all that was not in harmony with His will. Had their eyes been anointed with the heavenly eyesalve, they would have realized that they could not permit the exhibition that took place that afternoon, without dishonoring God.
Apparently there was much involved, in a country given to holidays and sports, in allowing any beginning toward what could easily become an infatuation.
The next morning, as Hughes was leaving his house for the school, Ellen White's carriage drove up, and he was informed that she wished to speak to him. As he wrote of this in 1912, Hughes bared his soul:
I went out to her carriage, and she leaned out toward me and said in very earnest tones, "I have come over to talk to you and your teachers and your students about the way you spent yesterday. Get your teachers together. I want to speak to them before I go in to speak to the students.
If Sister White had struck a blow full in my face, I do not think I would have felt so hurt as I did at her words. What she said sounded so unreasonable to me. I believed that what I had done the day before was for the best interests of the students.
I was very much troubled, knowing as I did the attitude of the Australians toward holidays and games. I felt that Sister White was acting rashly. I was very much tempted to advise her not to talk to the students that morning.
We went into the chapel and she delivered her talk, but it did not produce the commotion that I had expected. In fact, the students generally seemed to receive it quite well, but not so with myself.
We cannot here trace in detail the personal struggle Professor Hughes experienced. When, through Miss Peck, he inquired of Ellen White why, in the light of her counsel that teachers should play with their students, he should be reproved for what they had done, the answer came that the students at Avondale were not children but young men and young women preparing to be laborers for God. Then, with his concordance, he searched his Bible. One of the first references he turned to related to the children of Israel, when they "sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Nor were other texts any more helpful. When he came to recognize that winning in games meant others must fail, he was led to conclude that the spirit of most games and sports was not the right spirit of the adult Christian. "These thoughts," he declared, "brought me out of darkness into light, and I left behind me an experience which was a very trying one."
As was usually the case when counsel was given regarding the perils of a certain course, constructive alternatives were suggested. Ellen White did so along two lines:
In the place of providing diversions that merely amuse, arrangements should be made for exercises that will be productive of good. Satan would lead the students, who are sent to our schools to receive an education that will enable them to go forth as workers in God's cause, to believe that amusements are necessary to physical health. But the Lord has declared that the better way is for them to get physical exercise through manual training, and by letting useful employment take the place of selfish pleasure. The desire for amusement, if indulged, soon develops a dislike for useful, healthful exercise of body and mind, such as will make students efficient in helping themselves and others.
After Hughes and Palmer sought Ellen White's help in planning activities, she wrote:
They said they were perplexed to know what to do with the students' Sunday afternoons. They thought they could unite with them in these games and they would not be strolling around in the bush. I said, "Is there not an abundance of work to be done on this farm where all the energy and tact would be turned to the most useful account in a good work?"
All are to be rightly educated as in the schools of the prophets. Let another teacher educate how to do work in helping some of the worthy poor about us. There are houses that can be built. Get your students under a man who is a builder and see if you cannot find something that can be done in the lines of education and in the lines of holiness.
As Ellen White addressed the students and faculty, she was disappointed that there was dead silence. She wrote a few days later:
I knew after I had borne my testimony that the teachers and students might have taken a stand. But not one word was said in response to the testimony; not one word spoken before that school to say, "The Lord has spoken to us through His servant and we will thank God for the light that is come to us and will receive the light and prayerfully ask God to give us clear perception of right and wrong."
It seems that teachers and students were too stunned to speak. But the message sank into hearts and was effective. Faculty and students did some prayerful studying and thinking. Hughes reported that the equipment was disposed of, and recreation was found in activities other than sports and games.
The author, when visiting Australia in 1958, talked with a physician who was one of the students at Avondale in 1900. He volunteered the experience of some of the students, the memory of which had not dimmed in his mind. He and another young man banded together, in the light of Ellen White's counsel, to study what they could accomplish in helping others in the community. They found many places where they could help those in need, and this positive type of recreation provided soul-warming experiences in Christian service. In just a short time they sensed the advantages of finding recreation in activities that bring strength to the character as well as to the body. The grueling experience bore a good harvest.
On June 11, 1900, Ellen White could joyfully record in her diary:
I can but praise God for His goodness and mercies and blessings which are coming to the school and to the church. The Spirit of the Lord has come into the school, and the report is that every student is now a professed Christian. May the Lord bless them and sanctify them and refine them by His Holy Spirit that they may from henceforth reveal the character of the only true Model which is the character of Christ.
The Union Conference Record included the following under a note entitled "Students Building Churches":
Many of the older students, under the direction of Brother and Sister Robinson, are working up the missionary interests in the neighborhood. Children's meetings and a Sunday school are being held at Awaba, Sabbath services and Sabbath school at Dora Creek. . . . A little church is now being erected at Morisset for the accommodation of the meetings held there. This undertaking originated with the students. They have raised the money, and with the exception of a little help from experienced carpenters, they have done the work. Thus the students are learning the ABCs of church building. One important feature of the lesson is to be how to dedicate a church with no debt upon it. When this church is finished, they intend to build another at Martinsville.--August 1, 1900.
In the April confrontation Ellen White had suggested as an alternative to engaging in sports, "There are houses that can be built."
Balancing Counsel Regarding Simple Ball Games
The review of this experience cannot properly be left without calling attention to Ellen White's balanced counsel to a medical student in Michigan. Edgar Caro, from New Zealand, in 1893 had made inquiry of her by letter. Her reply sets forth several principles worthy of close study:
I do not condemn the simple exercise of playing ball; but this, even in its simplicity, may be overdone.
I shrink always from the almost sure result which follows in the wake of these amusements. It leads to an outlay of means that should be expended in bringing the light of truth to souls that are perishing out of Christ. The amusements and expenditures of means for self-pleasing, which lead on step by step to self-glorifying, and the education in these games for pleasure produces a love and passion for such things that are not favorable to the perfection of Christian character.
The way that they have been conducted at the college does not bear the impress of heaven. It does not strengthen the intellect. It does not refine and purify the character. There are threads leading out through the habits and customs and worldly practices, and the actors become so engrossed and infatuated that they are pronounced in heaven lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. In the place of the intellect becoming strengthened to do better work as students, to be better qualified as Christians to perform the Christian duties, the exercise in these games is filling their brains with thoughts that distract the mind from their studies.
Is the eye single to the glory of God in these games? I know that this is not so. There is a losing sight of God's way and His purpose. The employment of intelligent beings, in probationary time, is superseding God's revealed will and substituting for it the speculations and inventions of the human agent, with Satan by his side to imbue with his spirit. The Lord God of heaven protests against the burning passion cultivated for "supremacy" in the games that are so engrossing.
Ellen White also recognized the importance and place of the school gymnasium:
The question of suitable recreation for their pupils is one that teachers often find perplexing. Gymnastic exercises fill a useful place in many schools; but without careful supervision they are often carried to excess. In the gymnasium many youth, by their attempted feats of strength, have done themselves lifelong injury.
Exercise in a gymnasium, however well conducted, cannot supply the place of recreation in the open air, and for this our schools should afford better opportunity. Vigorous exercise the pupils must have. Few evils are more to be dreaded than indolence and aimlessness. Yet the tendency of most athletic sports is a subject of anxious thought to those who have at heart the well-being of the youth. Teachers are troubled as they consider the influence of these sports both on the student's progress in school and on his success in afterlife. {4BIO 441.5} - {4BIO 447.4}
Competitive Sports in Adventist Schools
Among the youth the passion for football games and other kindred selfish gratifications have been misleading in their influence. Watchfulness and prayer and daily consecration to God have not been maintained. Converse, communion with God, is life to the soul. The light has been beclouded, and it was well pleasing to Satan to have the impression go forth that notwithstanding the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit in behalf of our institutions of learning, and the office of publication and the church, they fell back to be overcome by temptation. Satan and evil workers cast reflection upon God, and His name has been dishonored. . . . {6MR 127.1}
The instructors ought to have had wisdom to follow the indications of the Holy Spirit, and go on from grace to grace, leading the youth to make the most of the light and grace given. They should have taught the youth that the Holy Spirit, which was imparted in great measure, was to help them to use their time and ability to do the very highest service for the Master, showing forth the praises of Him who had called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. But instead of this, many went more eagerly in pursuit of pleasure. There were witnesses upon the pleasure-grounds, heavenly intelligences that made the records in the book of God of transactions that many will not care to meet in the day when every work shall be manifest. Not only were heavenly messengers present, but the synagogue of Satan were on the ground to exult that his ingenious methods had in a great measure thwarted the purpose for which God gave the Holy Spirit. God desired to carry the youth forward and upward that they might understand by experience the words of the inspired apostle, "We are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." Of how many who exhibited their qualifications in the games could this be said? . . . {6MR 127.2}
Use your God-entrusted capital of means to arm and equip men to enlist in the army of the Lord as soldiers of Jesus Christ. Teach them that it is not the indulgence of every whim which youth may suggest that will facilitate their growth in Christian experience. Selfish gratification is the snare and curse of our youth. Their abilities are misapplied. Through erroneous ideas parents, friends, and guardians-- whose money supports them in the school--seek to gratify their desires in order, as they suppose, to make them happy. This very course of action is blocking their way; it encourages selfish indulgence; it prevents them from entering the narrow, heavenward path. O that the Lord may anoint the blind eyes, that they may see! {6MR 128.1}
It is not impressed upon the minds of the young that self-denial, cross-bearing for Christ's sake, is to be a part of their religious experience. They think it all right for them to be sustained and educated, and to spend money to gratify their desires for selfish indulgence. There is danger that these poor souls will never understand what it means to follow Christ in self-denial and bearing the cross and to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. They will be like a reed in the wind. Let the youth consider that they are deciding their own destiny for eternity by the characters they form in this life. . . . {6MR 128.2}
The heavenly intelligences are waiting to cooperate with the human agent in reshaping his character according to the divine model. Will the human agent do his God-given work, or will he bend all his efforts toward shaping the character after the worldly pattern? See 1 Cor. 1:3-8--Letter 47, 1893, pp. 3, 5-9. (To W. W. Prescott, October 25, 1893.) Released April 16, 1974. {6MR 128.3}
CONCLUSION...
The only competition that does not bring self-gratification, is that of our war with Satan, which is powered by Christ!
Our spiritual warfare is very much alive, and worthy of our attention. For it is the competition of our souls!
Ephesians 6:12 "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
THIS IS THE ONLY COMPETITION THAT THE BIBLE SUPPORTS!
Paul says... "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us," Hebrews 12:1
And, when his spiritual race was over, he stated... "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 2 Timothy 4:7-8
Many wont understand or receive the rebuke given in this message. Just as Professor C. B. Hughes did not at first! But, through prayer, and the love for God and His will, the truth is made plain! The spirit of competition was clearly condemned by the realized statement... "When he came to recognize that winning in games meant others must fail, he was led to conclude that the spirit of most games and sports was not the right spirit of the adult Christian."
This realization was magnified by the following action... "Faculty and students did some prayerful studying and thinking. Hughes reported that the equipment was disposed of, and recreation was found in activities other than sports and games."
Indeed, conversions such as this, are only realized through the aid of the Holy Spirit! We should in no wise expect this to be the out come of all who claim the name of the Lord! For His true people will be of a peculiar nature! Not average! Not of the norm!
Exodus 19:5 "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:"
Deuteronomy 14:2 "For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth."
Deuteronomy 26:18 "And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments;"
Titus 2:11-15 "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee."
PECULIAR:
G4041
περιούσιος
periousios
per-ee-oo'-see-os
From the present participle feminine of a compound of G4012 and G1510; being beyond usual, that is, special (one’s own): - peculiar.
: characteristic of only one person, group, or thing : distinctive.
: different from the usual or normal: a : special, particular b : odd, curious.
We do not cheer, take joy, or participate in the same senseless rivalry and follies that the world does! For we are Holy unto Him!...
1 Peter 2:9 "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:"
If indeed, we are God's people, and can claim to be CHOSEN, ROYAL, HOLY, and PECULIAR, our praises, and loyalty will be unto HIM!!!
MAY WE ALL STRIVE TO DO WHAT BEST PLEASES THE LORD IN OUR RECREATION!
BE BLESSED!
~RABS~
