Recreation versus Dissipation

After one has done a good day's work, he may rightly have the feeling that it is time to relax and have some recreation. Or perhaps when one has worked steadily for much of the year, he considers a vacation has its place.

In such instances one might well discern the difference between recreation and dissipation. Recreation, a positive sense, includes refreshment and renewal. But certainly dissipation, a negative sense, results in waste of time and strength and a squandering of one's resources, both material and spiritual.

Worldly views may attract one toward material indulgences as forms of amusement. They divert one's attention from the course of spiritual achievement and are liable to cancel, or at least hinder, one's progress. Mrs. Eddy says, "Vibrating like a pendulum between sin and the hope of forgiveness,—selfishness and sensuality causing constant retrogression,—our moral progress will be slow." Science and Health, p. 22;

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April 29, 1967
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