On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts.

Serve Him With Mirth

The Place of Humor in the Christian Life

By LESLIE B. FLYNN

       Laughter rings out countless times a day in every hamlet around the world where normal conditions prevail. Strangely, some Christians give the impression that indulgence in laughter betrays a low level of spirituality, whereas gloom indicates godliness. But the truth is, laughter can go hand in hand with a deeply spiritual life.

With these words the author introduces his subject - one of the most interesting in human experience - humor. Theories of the origin of humor, the place of humor in the lives of early Christian leaders, the fact that some Puritans thought it was sin to look at flowers, lest they be tempted to frivolity - these and other background insights into humor are skillfully woven into the chapters of this book. With reverence and respect for the Scriptures, Pastor Flynn also discusses "Humor in the Bible," "The Humor of Jesus," and "God's Final Laughter."

An appendix contains more than 150 anecdotes and stories arranged alphabetically according to subject, all dealing with some aspect of religious life and suitable as illustrations in sermons, etc.

Written to meet the need for a right perspective of humor with relation to the Christian faith, this book will be useful for all Christians and especially for ministers and lay speakers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A native of Canada, Leslie B. Flynn received all of his higher education in the United States, after graduating from high school and business college in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He is a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton College (B.A.). From the Chicago area he moved to Pennsylvania where he received his B.D. degree at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and his A.M. in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.

He pastored the Bethlehem Baptist Church of St. Clair, Pennsylvania, from 1944-9. From 1949-89 he was pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Nanuet, New York, and is now Pastor Emeritus.

He has also been active in journalism and education, acting as regional editor of Christian Life Magazine, writing many articles for Christian publications, and serving as an instructor and Assistant Professor of Journalism in journalism in Nyack Missionary College 1961-72. He also served on the boards of World Relief and Denver Seminary, and broadcast weekly in the New York area for 24 years.

Leslie Flynn has authored about 40 books: some are in print, including the best-selling 19 Gifts of the Spirit; others are still available second-hand (e.g. from abebooks.com). His wife, Bernice Carlson Flynn, was Family Editor of Christian Life Magazine. The Flynns have six daughters.

INTRODUCTION TO THE E-BOOK EDITION

Is humor a forgotten area of Christian ministry? Leslie Flynn's classic book is one of a handful on this subject published in the past 50 years, and it remains the only book to cover all aspects in detail.

 When this book was first published, back in 1960, the church was a much more formal institution. Along with the rest of society, we have all loosened up somewhat since then! Humor is certainly used far more widely these days within Christian ministry. And the therapeutic role of humor in health, both mental and physical, has been proven by clinical trials. The message of the book is remarkably undated, and it remains highly relevant today.

 Despite the changes of the last half-century, I am not sure that the church as a whole understands the biblical context, indeed mandate, to use humor. And many find it very hard to perceive the extent to which humor and whimsy is embedded into the vast majority of the books of the Bible. The cultural and linguistic gap between us and the books of the Old and New Testaments can prevent us understanding the frequent use of irony, whimsy, word-play and puns. We expect no humor, so we see none.

 This is tragic, because humor has a remarkable role, especially in evangelism. It is a way of smuggling truth past people?s defenses into their hearts. It should be seen as an integral part of effective Christian communication and proclamation. This theme is developed within the Web Evangelism Guide, in this section about humor:

 www.gospelcom.net/guide/humor

Our grateful thanks go to Leslie Flynn for permission to reproduce this valuable, balanced, biblical view of humor.

Tony Whittaker, Web Evangelism Guide www.web-evangelism.com 2004

Printing:  this book prints out in 10pt text, at about 75 pages, or 57 pages excluding the appendix.

Bible quotations: are from the KJV, which was in universal use at the time the book was written. They follow the KJV house-style of no capitalization for divine pronouns, although elsewhere in the text, such capitalization is used.

Serve Him With Mirth

The Place of Humor in the Christian Life

by

LESLIE B. FLYNN

ZONDERVAN PUBLISHING HOUSE

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN

Serve Him with Mirth

Copyright 1960

Leslie B Flynn

Printed in the United States of America

TO

my godly parents,

James a. Flynn and Agnes G. Flynn,

whose Irish wit and sweet sense of humor I learned

early in life to appreciate

PREFACE

Laughter rings out countless times a day in every hamlet around the world where normal conditions prevail. Strangely, some Christians give the impression that indulgence in laughter betrays a low level of spirituality, whereas gloom indicates godliness. But the truth is, laughter can go hand in hand with a deeply spiritual life.

Because God has made us so, humor is universally human. One chapter of this book analyzes the major factors that trigger laughter. The benefits which derive from proper humor are described. Then the limits beyond which humor passes into bad taste, and even sin, are outlined. Other topics include humor in the Bible, the humor of Jesus, which many times must have evoked laughter from His hearers, and God's final laughter.

Confessedly, the theme of laughter is not the most momentous subject facing our world today. But it should not be forgotten that the Great Physician prescribes merry medicine as a tonic for the soul. Laughter has its place in the divine economy for smoothing some of the saints' tensions and giving vent to their joys.

Leslie B. Flynn

CONTENTS

1. Does God Want Us to Laugh? .......................................... 4

2. People Are Funny .............................................................. 10

3. Why We Laugh ................................................................... 14

4. Divine Prescription: Merry Medicine ............................... 22

5. It's Not Funny, Pal! ............................................................. 30

6. Humor in the Bible ............................................................. 37

7. The Humor of Jesus ........................................................... 46

8. God's Final Laughter ......................................................... 51

DUCKS III

by Frederick W. Harvey

When God finished the stars and the whirl of colored suns,

He turned His mind from big things to fashion little ones,

Beautiful tiny things (like daisies) He made, and then

He made the comical ones in case the minds of men

  Should stiffen and become

  Dull, humorless and glum:

And so forgetful of their Maker be

As to take even themselves - quite seriously.

Caterpillars and cats are lively and excellent puns:

All God's jokes are good - even the practical ones!

And as for the duck, I think God must have smiled a bit

Seeing those bright eyes blink on the day He fashioned it.

And He's probably laughing still

At the sound that came out of its bill.

CHAPTER 1

Does God Want Us to Laugh?

Humor and the Christian faith!

The linking of these two subjects in the same breath will undoubtedly result in exclamation points. Any suggestion of possible association between two seemingly unrelated spheres will probably raise quizzical eyebrows and give vent to expressions of subdued surprise.

Those who feel this combination to be a major mismatch reason thus: Humor deals with the secular; the Bible delves into the sacred. Humor borders on the sinful; the Bible breathes holiness. These two themes belong to different areas, perhaps even mutually exclusive.

The impression seems to prevail among some people that Christians should beware of humor. Little Janet was visiting her grandfather's farm. Grandpa, a religious man, always serious and sombre, would tolerate no merriment. Seeking relief from the oppressive gloom, little Janet wandered out to the fam where she spotted a donkey. Noting its sad look, she said dolefully as she patted its long face, "Poor donkey, you've got grandpa's religion, too!"

How prone people are to associate the sunny, smiling face with the shallow, superficial disposition, and to link up the sad countenance with deep piety! Joy is considered a satanic instrument and melancholy a divine characteristic. Spurgeon quoted a couplet to describe those who hold this view:

Who think all virtue lies in gravity,

And smiles are symptoms of depravity. [1]

Perhaps somber clergymen have unwittingly abetted the notion that gloom indicates godliness. A deacon, scrutinizing passengers as they alighted from the train, was trying to pick out the visiting preacher whom he was scheduled to entertain but whom he had never seen.

Selecting a likely fellow he asked, "Pardon me, but are you a minister?"

"No," came the curt reply, "it's my indigestion that makes me look like this!"

Much of our suspicion of humor can be traced to the Puritan forefathers for whom life was stern. Richard Baxter, who penned over a hundred articles, including A Serious Call to the Unconverted, never wrote a light line. According to Edward Irving, "Laughter is a kind of bacchanalian state of the mind just as drunkenness is a bacchanalian state of the body. It is a rather violent change in the law and order of nature to which it is not willingly inclined if sanctified." [2]

The sermons of John Wesley, the Arminian, contain no jokes or humorous anecdotes [3], and Augustus Toplady, author of ?Rock of Ages? and a Calvinist, is said to have likened prankful children to fountains of iniquity. The seventeenth-century pietist, August H. Francke, forbade children to smile in his orphanages, for he regarded humor and fun as nearly sacrilegious. If some Puritans refused to gaze at beautiful flowers since they were of this world and liable to detract from heavenly matter[4], it is not surprising that they likewise thought humor a sin worthy of repentance. But classic Puritanism had its exceptions as the milk of human humor spilled out on occasions, both consciously and unconsciously, as the following chapter will illustrate.

The reason for Puritan sternness was its reaction against the riotous mirth and bawdy frolics of the Elizabethan stage. Because many wits gave their humor talent over to debauchery, the Puritans revolted against this swashbuckling frivolity. Sweeping across life with usual thoroughness, they closed the theatres, banned Shakespeare and pushed the pendulum to the other extreme. Their stem approach found confirmation in remarks which Christ and the apostles made. They would say, "Jesus condemned worthless speaking. He never laughed. Furthermore, Paul rebuked foolish speaking and jesting."

Their influence pervaded much of Christian thinking on this subject. In the late eighteenth century, John Newton, rector of St. Mary Woolnoth in England, better known as author of many well-known hymns, among them "Amazing Grace" and "Safely Through Another Week", asked a friend, "What would you think of seeing a dray-horse jump over St. Paul's Cathedral?" Then he added, "This would be no more than a flea does, in proportion to its size, when it jumps."

When this remark was circulated it resulted in no small stir among Newton's friends. A witticism from him was a matter of concern to others. Because it almost made one laugh, it was a suspicious approximation to a sin. At a ministers' meeting at that time this saying became a topic of consideration. The verdict was that his words were a near-witticism, just shaving the edge of a precipice. He was excused on the grounds that the comment came from his genius rather than his levity. [5]

William. Kethe, a refugee in Geneva, Switzerland, from the persecutions of England's Bloody Mary in the sixteenth century, found the Calvinists using the Psalms in French metrical versions, so translated them directly from the Hebrew into English. A line from "Old Hundredth" read, "Him serve with mirth, his praise forthtell." This was changed by later English divines who considered it too light to: "Him serve with fear, his praise forthtell."

To this day many Christians feel that joking is wrong. As students gathered around their assigned table for breakfast at Bible college each morning, someone would invariably drop a humorous remark. And just as invariably, a deeply spiritual boy would look up in stern fashion from his New Testament, clear his throat and intone with sepulchral solemnity, "Brethren, remember, every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement."

If such reasonings are true, then no laugh should ever ring again, no word of wit pass our lips, no smile at humor cross our faces, nor should we repeat anything funny. Many of the pleasantries of social intercourse would be forever banned! What a drab, dull, dreary world this would be! Doesn't God want us to laugh?

Distrust of humor in Christian circles may he indicated by the omission or near-omission of humor from the Christian press. Secular joke books are a dime a dozen for children as well as adults, but few books of humor treating religious subjects have appeared, except for a few volumes on the funny side of parsonage life. The comical that constantly occurs in life all around us is captured by secular magazines but goes unmentioned by much of the sacred press.

A few Christian periodicals attempt some humor, such as Christianity Today's "Eutychus and His Kin", and the Watchman-Examiner's column "Just for Fun". In contrast to this minimal usage by religious magazines, whole sections on humor are featured by many major secular publications like the Reader's Digest. Though some fillers may be risqué, many are acceptable by Christian standards. Oddly enough, if one is hunting for humorous stories relating to churches, choirs, congregations and religion in general, he will be far more likely to find such in the secular press. Ben Hibbs, editor of the Saturday Evening Post, once stated at a Christian journalism conference in Philadelphia that he rarely received requests from Protestant religious periodicals to reprint jokes and cartoons appearing in the Post.

Newsweek's religious section recently carried a picture of the newly appointed Dean of New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine and his cartoon collection. For years Dr. John V. Butler has been saving humor cartoons on clergymen. He estimates that ninety per cent of his collection came from secular magazines, and only ten percent from religious publications.

Admittedly, Christian periodicals stress the serious aspects of life and death. Because slanted to eternal values, little or no room remains for lighter things. When subjects like sin, atonement, angels, the Trinity, demons, heaven, hell, resurrection and predestination consume our attention, how can one in the same pages descend from the sublime to the ridiculous? Since space is at a premium, how incongruous to waste it on levity! Yet may not this de-emphasis of humor tend to give the impression that Christianity and humor are incompatible? Many people may wonder if God approves of humor.

A nineteenth-century English pastor gave a series of lectures to his youth entitled, 'Tangled Talk on the Use and Abuse of Wit and Humor'. He began by saying, 'Perhaps some of you fail to see any connection between wit and humor on the one hand, and prayer and praise on the other. The song of praise and the cry of prayer before a message on such a topic may shock you as out of place. But the Christian faith has to do with everything with which we have to do. If we can't ask God's blessing on this subject, then we shouldn't discuss it. The title of my lectures will not, I hope, raise the expectation of a comic entertainment. The object is, not to make you laugh, but to make you think about a certain question in Christian ethics. Humor is a subject that touches us almost every hour. Right views about it may brighten life. Wrong views may issue in harm to our souls and society. God guide us!

The thesis of this book is that humor need not be sneaked in the back door of the Christian life to be surreptitiously enjoyed like forbidden fruit, but, rather, that humor has a legitimate, lofty and integral place in Christian experience. God does wish us to enjoy humor. Following are six reasons, some of which will he amplified in later chapters.

1.  God Has Created Man To Enjoy Humor

Why is it that of all the creatures in the world only man can laugh? Why, on hearing something funny, does a person throw back his head, open his mouth, and with chest heaving to and fro as though in convulsions, laugh as his breath pumps out in explosive puffs. The answer is because God has made him so.

Created in the image of his Maker, man has rationality or the ability to reason. Called the light of God in the soul, reason permits man to note the incongruities of life. Since incongruity is the essence of humor, we would never laugh had not God made us the way He did, for these incongruities would then escape us.

Humor belongs to the nature of man from even before the fall. Shall man refuse to laugh when he remembers who made him this way? ?Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves . . .? (Psalm 100:3). He has made us with the powers, capacities and instincts that enter into our vital constitution, including the faculty of humor. Let us thank Him for every good, as well as perfect, gift.

Although it is true that since the Fall the intellect has been darkened and humor often tainted as in much of radio and TV comedy, yet the faculty of humor can be sanctified and restored to its God-given position. The Christian faith doesn?t war against man?s use of humor but against his abuse of humor.

2.  God Appreciates Humor

Humor is not only human but it seems divine. We must avoid creating a god in man?s own image. However, if man is made in God?s image, part of which involves the appreciation of humor, does it not seem logical to deduce that God must be capable of creating and enjoying humor?

The Bible ascribes laughter to God. How ridiculously humorous for men to plot strategy against an all-powerful God. No wonder ?He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision? (Psalm 2:4). A relationship exists between humor and the laugh of superiority. ?Milton is bold enough in Paradise Lost to put jest on the lips of deity. When Lucifer and the angels revolted, with grim humor the Almighty declares,

Nearly it now concerns us to be sure

Of our omnipotence . . . (v, 721-22).? [6]

3.  God Has Given Man An Environment With a Touch of the Comical

A little meditation on the various kinds of creatures in God?s animal world should teach us that God has a sense of humor. Not only has He created the category of the comical but He has stocked our surroundings with creatures to tickle our sense of humor. Even if the animals are unfunny to God, He knew they would give us many a laugh. At the zoo people invariably exclaim, ?Look, isn?t it funny?? Some look funny; others act that way.

Who fails to he amused by the skyscraper neck of the giraffe? Or by the vacuum cleaner mouth of the anteater? Or by the built-in baby buggy of the kangaroo? Or by the freakishness of the duck-billed, web-footed, flat-tailed platypus? Or by the toothpick legs of the brightly colored flamingo? Who is not amused by the antics of the monkeys in the cage? Or by the squeaky phrases of the parrot? Or by a kitten stealthily stalking a windblown leaf like a lion its prey in the jungle? Or by the revolving head of the praying mantis? Or by the strutting of the peacock? Or by the mimicry of the saucy little mockingbird which naturalists tell us can imitate the songs of forty other birds, always trilling each phrase at least a half dozen times? Or by the wild chuckwallas which when frightened actually do inflate themselves like balloons to scare their enemies?

Mark Twain once described a camel as an ?ostrich with an extra set of legs?.? It was a camel that once provoked the saintly Robert Murray M?Cheyne of Scotland to the only bit of wit found anywhere in his writings. Sent by his denomination on a missionary survey trip of the Near East, he had frequent occasion to ride on a camel. He described how a pilgrim feels as he mounts a camel that in turn slowly rises. ?As he goes up with you on his back, you feel as if you were bidding farewell to all sublunary things, but when he begins to move, you are strongly reminded of your terrestrial affinities.?

The numerous forms or motions in nature that seem grotesque, fantastic, laughable or playful, suggest that humor forms part of divine perfection. These things that make for merriment in us were created by God. Over their counterparts at the beginning God proclaimed His verdict, ?Very good.? It seems that the Creator intended man to have in moderate measure the pure enjoyment of comicality.

Dear God, we make you so solemn,

So stiff and old and staid.

How can we be so stupid

When we look at the things you?ve made?

How can we miss the twinkle,

That must have been in your eye

When you planned the hippopoto

And the rhinoceri?

Who watches an ostrich swallow,

Then doubts that you like to play,

Or questions your sense of humor,

Hearing a donkey bray?

Could the God who made the monkey

Have forgotten how to laugh.

Or the one who striped the zebra

And stretched out the giraffe?

How could an oldish person

Fashion a pelican.

Or a perfectly sober Creator

Ever imagine man?

      - HELEN SALSBURY

No wonder Lincoln said, ?God must have meant us to laugh. Else He would not have made so many mules, parrots, monkeys and human beings.?

4.  God?s Book Contains Many Examples Of Humor

It should always be kept in mind that the Bible is first and foremost a serious book. Its solemn truths should not he tampered with. God?s revelation has been so set down in the Bible that its acceptance results in eternal life, but its rejection ends in eternal tragedy.

Though the Bible is a divinely inspired book, its subject matter involves human nature. If humor is part and parcel of human nature, humorous incidents should crop up from time to time in the Bible.

Dr. A. T. Pierson, author of several chapters in the well-known ?Fundamentals?, a series of articles setting forth the main doctrines of historic Christianity, widely circulated in the early years of this century, also wrote a book, Knowing the Scriptures. In this volume he devotes a whole chapter to the subject of humor in the Bible which he entitles, ?The Humorous Element in Scripture?. He says, ?Humor has its legitimate place, province and office, even in sacred things. Biblical examples might be collated of every sort of weapon to he found in the whole armory of humor - wit, satire, irony, retort, ridicule, raillery, drollery, play on words - these and other forms of the ludicrous are employed by prophets, apostles, and some of them even by our Lord Himself as a means to rebuke and expose error and wrong and vindicate truth and right.? [7]

In preparation for this present book, I read through the Bible with the distinct purpose of picking out all possible references to humor. Considering humor in its broadest sense, and including examples of the wrong kind as well as of the good, I filled one hundred pages of a medium-sized loose-leaf notebook. These notes constitute the basis for three of the chapters that follow: ?Humor in the Bible?, ?The Humor of Jesus? and ?God?s Final Laughter?.

5.  God?s Son Used Humor During His Earthly Ministry

Since Jesus Christ took on Him human nature and lived on earth as man, Ideal Man to be sure, humor must have been interwoven in His humanity. Hastings says of Him, ?He is a man speaking to man in the language of men, and pathos, contrast, humor, and spontaneity are the natural pleasant marks of that language. A smile is felt in His words, as in the words of all who see contradiction without loss of inner peace.? [8]

An entire chapter later in the book contains at least two dozen examples of wit scattered through His teachings. Son of Man as well as Son of God, Jesus Christ used humor.

6.  God has given humor a place in redeemed human nature by virtue of its close relationship to joy, praise, and peace

Related to joy

A popular Bible teacher was publicly rebuked at a Bible conference for indulging in what some strait-laced people deemed too much humor. His reply was, ?When I got saved, I got the joy of the Lord. I can?t help it if it runs over.?

Sometimes people laugh to cover up embarrassment or an empty heart. Usually they laugh because something is funny. But sanctified humor has its roots deeper than mere need for venting pent-up emotions. Godly humor springs from genuine Spirit-produced joy. Christianity is the ?religion? of joy. The promised seed of Abraham was Isaac, whose name means ?laughter? (Genesis 21:6). The spiritual seed of Abraham is Christ, who came to save us from our sins. If through faith in the promised offspring of Abraham, Laughter (Isaac) and Jacob, we have been justified from all transgressions and have been restored to divine favor, able to sing -

My sin - oh, the bliss of this glorious thought -

   My sin - not in part, but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,

   Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

- then above all others we should be a joyful people. Will not this deep-rooted gladness spill over and express itself in many ways, one of which will be by entering in a right way into the wit and humor of life? A sense of humor, sanctified by the Spirit, has its place in the man possessing the new life in Christ.

Those who connect gloom with godliness misrepresent the Christian faith. The New Testament begins with the joyful, angelic tidings of Christ?s birth and ends with the redeemed rejoicing around the throne. In Jesus? day people disfigured their faces to appear outwardly righteous, but the Savior pierced beneath this waxed mask of artificial spirituality. He clearly stated that He wished that His joy might indwell His followers and that their joy might be full. In addition, Jesus commanded His followers to be cheerful despite impending tribulation. When disappointment and even disaster hem us in, when situations seem insurmountable, will not the joyful assurance that all things will work together for good to those that love God buoy us up? May we not laugh together at impossibilities, knowing that out of the tangled mess He will bring glory? May not the command to ?rejoice in the Lord always? (Philippians 4:4), involve the proper use of our humorous faculty?

Related to Praise

Laughter and praise are closely related. The first item mentioned with the command to be filled with the Spirit is joyful praise (Ephesians 5:18-20). Contemplation of God?s salvation, His goodness to us in the past, plus His prospects for us in the future, may lead us to shout with joyful laughter. The psalmist?s expressions of praise seem intimately linked with laughter: ?shout with joy?, ?be glad?, ?sing?, ?bless the Lord?, ?rejoice?, ?O give thanks unto the Lord?, ?O magnify the Lord?, ?exalt His name?, ?be joyful?, ?clap your hands?, ?sing praises?, ?make a joyful noise unto God?, ?blessed be the Lord?. A later chapter will point out that laughter is often connected with a sense of superiority, enabling us to laugh at others. Contemplating God?s superiority over all nations, the psalmist exclaims, ?. . . shout unto God with the voice of triumph? (Psalm 47:1). This burst of praise could be paraphrased, ?. . . shout unto God with the voice of laughter?. Joy may be more than laughter, but it is not less.

Godly laughter is a gift of God to those in right relation to Him. For their persistent disobedience to God, the people of Judah suffered removal of genuine laughter during their seventy-year exile. The prophet had warned, ?Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness? (Jeremiah 25: 10). But those in fellowship with the Lord in all ages can say, ?Thou hast put gladness in my heart? (Psalm 4:7).

Related to Peace

Humor is related to peace. Humor in its etymology meant ?wetness? and is of same derivation as ?humidity?. Primitive medicine stated that the body contained four principal humors. If the flow was normal, man was in good humor; if irregular, man?s ill humor showed up in disease. The word came to mean a whim dictated by one?s condition, then drifted on to its present meaning. A good-humored person possesses a well-integrated disposition. Hastings states that ?humor in its highest forms is the sign of a mind at peace with itself, for which the contrasts; and contradictions of life have ceased to jar, though they have not ceased to be?.. [9]

Distinguishing among various kinds of laugh, psychologists point out that the joyful laugh is a bubbling over of good humor and occurs in people in a state of well-being. Godly humor springs from the peace of God.

A sense of humor has its place to play in a joyful zest for life. Is it not likely that God who created man with a sense of humor will use the humor in some way, not only to express that joy, but to buttress man in his struggles with the frustrations, tensions and depressions of life? Have you ever thought how intolerable life would be without humor? If our sense of humor went on a strike, the economy would be as endangered as if the railroads failed to function. Just try to get through twenty-four hours without making or hearing a joke! How unbearable the day!

Admittedly, the Christian life is real and earnest and serious, often demanding broken hearts. But no virtue resides in constant solemnity. Laughing can be as spiritual as singing or crying. A moderate and proper use of our sense of humor is not incompatible with the joy, praise and peace of a Spirit-led life.

The Christian faith should restore natural gifts to right use. Why should we give up humor on becoming a Christian? Should a musician on his conversion to Christ give up the use of note C or E? Should a writer stop using the letter M, or the mathematician refrain from the use of the number 3? Why should a Christian surrender the faculty of humor? Christianity involves the right employment of man?s whole self, not a fiber nor a faculty left out.

In refuting the charge that humor is sinful levity, a nineteenth-century preacher argues rather spiritedly, ?Levity! Brothers distinguish between light-headed and light-hearted; do not crush instincts which God has implanted, nor ban delights which He has provided. Do not torment your own souls, nor the souls of others, gratuitously. In no single thing impose on your own, or on theirs, a Pharisaic yoke. Make no artificial ?Slough of Despond? or ?Hill Difficulty?, or ?Valley of the Shadow of Death?. Do not strain the bow too continuously. Do not, if you can help it, allow any Christian humorist to stand gagged and writhing before his Lord, under the impression that this is the way to please Him. Mark the difference between religious right and wrong as God teaches it, and as man sometimes teaches it. Shun everything that would make the Christian life artificially strenuous. Remember that you may sin by dullness as well as by vivacity.? [10]

When the Israelites persisted in mourning after confession and forgiveness of sins, Ezra rebuked them. ?This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not.? When the truth of the Scriptures Ezra read sank into their hearts, they ?went their way to eat, and to drink . . . and to make great mirth? (Nehemiah 8:9,12).

A hymn penned in the mid-nineteenth century by Edward H. Plumptre, contains these stanzas:

Rejoice ye pure in heart,

   Rejoice, give thanks and sing;

Your festal banner wave on high,

   The cross of Christ your King.

With all the angel choirs,

   With all the saints on earth,

Pour out the strains of joy and bliss,

   True rapture, noblest mirth!

Since humor is a gift of God and since God has provided opportunities for us to exercise it, we may someday be called to account for our stewardship of this happy faculty, just as we will he summoned to answer for our talents. Let us not bury our sense of humor.

Why should we suppose that tears are pious and laughs perverse? On the contrary, tears seem more closely allied to sin than laughs, for someday God will wipe away all tears from our eyes. But nowhere does the Bible say God will wipe away our laughs.

NOTES ON CHAPTER 1

1  C. H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, 2nd series (London: Marshall Brothers, 1906 p. 118.

2  Charles Stanford, The Wit and Humor of Life (London: Elliot Stock Publishing Co., 1886), p. 64.

3  George A. Turner, ?John Wesley as an Interpreter of Scripture?, in Inspiration and Interpretation, edited by John W. Walvoord (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1957), p. 167.

4  Augustus H. Strong, Systematic Theology (Philadelphia: The Judson Press, 1907), p. 27.

5  Stanford, op. cit., p. 67.

6  Paul K. Jewett, in a chapel talk at Fuller Theological Seminary, 1958.

7  Arthur T. Pierson, Knowing the Scriptures (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, reprint edition, 1910), p. 436.

8  Hastings, article ?Humor?? in Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels (New York: Charles Scribner?s Sons, 1908), Vol. 1, p. 761.

9  Ibid., p. 760.

10  Stanford, op. cit., p. 68.

CHAPTER 2

People Are Funny

A man was visiting a friend?s home. Together they were watching a television program. The host?s dog also sat in front of the TV set, seemingly enjoying the story. At humorous moments the dog, a Great Dane, would nod knowingly to its master and chuckle. When the program ended the visitor immediately turned to the master, ?Why, your dog seemed to enjoy the story and even to like the humor. It amazes me!?

?I?m surprised, too,? the master replied, ?because he didn?t like it a bit when it appeared in book form.?

The smile you give this story reveals the absurdity of a dog either reading a book or enjoying humor.

It is people who are funny!

A boy and his dog may become inseparable buddies. They may romp together, sleep together, sometimes eat together, but when it comes to laughter they will be poles apart. When the lad lets out a howl of laughter at something that tickles his sense of humor, the dog will look at his master with a wooden expression. If any thought process could prance behind that blank stare, it would be, ?What?s wrong with my master? Is he sick?? Only man laughs.

Chapter 1 listed six reasons to show God?s approval of humor. This chapter elaborates on reason number one - God created man to enjoy humor.

Because he is made in the image of God, man thinks. His intellectual ability permits him to reason, speak, invent, appreciate the artistic, and create and recognize the comical. By virtue of his position at the apex of God?s creation, he is the only one of the created beings that laughs. Had not man been created in divine likeness, Walpole could never have made the observation that ?the world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those who feel?. One divine gave this counsel, ?If thou beest wise, laugh: for since the powers of discourse, and Reason, and laughter, be equally proper unto Man only, why shall not he be only most wise, as well as he which hath most of reasoning and discoursing.? [1]

Just as every individual possesses an IQ, however widely it may vary, so every person has what we may call an HQ (Humor Quotient), ranging from high to low. Though he may not have the ability to actively create humor in abundance, man has the capacity to enjoy it in measure. Laughter is human. Because a person never laughs doesn?t mean he is super-spiritual. Rather, it may mean he is sub-human, perhaps to be pitied like the man with the low IQ. In fact, tests have indicated that a lively sense of humor goes hand-in-hand with high intelligence. Research has revealed that generally students who ranked high scholastically were not the most serious or sober-minded but those who possessed a better sense of humor than the poorer students who tended to laugh indiscriminately. One psychologist suggested that sense of humor tests could almost be substituted for intelligence tests. Humor is directly related to rationality which is a major element in man?s creation in the divine image.

People Were Funny - In All Times

The history of humor is simply the history of humanity?s literature. As far back as the literary record goes, so does humor. Philosophers from ancient to modern eras have had something to say about humor, including Aristotle, Plato, Hobbes, Kant, Schopenhauer and Henri Bergson.

The most widely held theory of humor traces its origin back to the coarse shout of a hairy, sub-human, stone-age savage as he stands in gleeful exultation over a fallen foe after a ferocious battle. In typical evolutionary fashion this hypothesis holds that as humanity slowly developed, this primitive, brutal laugh of triumph gave way to higher forms of humor. Instead of amusement at the disaster of others, man in time reacted with delight at a semblance of disaster, but where no real tragedy existed. In later times this seeming disaster gave way to mere misfit or incongruity, resulting in the quiet chuckle of the humorist. The scale of humor rose through comedy of words, to comedy of ideas, to comedy of situation and character, finally to the comedy of the sublime where pathos and humor blend. Also, in this explanation of the origin of humor, the beginning stream which ultimately gave birth to the humor of the highest type divided in another direction. This divergent flow, retaining some of the original brutality, issued, in modified forms of meanness such as ridicule, satire, sarcasm and scorn. The pun, as a form of humor, on this hypothesis, came late, after the invention of language.

Those who believe in man?s original creation in the likeness of God need not postulate this progressive development of humor as outlined above. An ascending scale of humor may exist but it doesn?t necessarily follow that the lower forms preceded the higher. The creationist would hold that the Adam who possessed the advanced intelligence necessary to name the animals also possessed sufficient capacity for higher as well as lower forms of humor from the very beginning.

Any historical outline of humor involves writers of all eras. On an ancient Egyptian papyrus dating earlier than 1,000 B.C. was drawn a cat wielding a shepherd?s crook and driving a flock of geese. This was a humorous take-off on tyrants who mistreated their fellow-humans.

According to Josephus, famed Jewish historian, Hiram of Tyre exchanged riddles with other monarchs. Aesop?s Fables in the sixth century BC portrayed animals masquerading as humans. Aristotle, Creek philosopher living four centuries BC, in his Nicomachean Ethics, spoke of ready-wittedness as the proper mean between boorishness and buffoonery. In his Poetics Aristotle dealt mainly with tragedy, remarking that comedy was a subdivision of the ugly or tragic. Greek comedy was presented before Athenian audiences with features exaggerated by grotesque masks.

It has been pointed out that Euclid framed many of his propositions in geometry in joke fashion. One condensed example runs, ?If two triangles have two angles of each equal to two angles of the other, each to each, then must the third angles be equal each to each. For if not, let one be greater than the other. Then the three angles of one are greater than of the other. But the three angles of each are equal to two right angles. Therefore, two right angles are greater than two right angles - which is absurd!? At this spot Euclid?s hearers were supposed to roar with laughter. [2]

Buddhist literature spoke of monkeys who watered their gardens and then pulled up plants to see if their roots were wet. The ?noodle? jokes of ancient times related the words and deeds of the witless, such as the fellow who, teaching his horse to eat less and less, gave him nothing. When the horse died, the witless exclaimed, ?Just as he was learning to live on nothing, he died!?

The punch-line of some jokes told today dates back hundreds of years, like the following. On the day of woman?s creation the gods took the roundness of the moon, the trembling quality of grass, the radiance of light and by mixing with other ingredients made woman. A week later man complained that she talked incessantly and told the gods to take her back. A week later man came begging for her, moaning that without her life was lonely. Three days later man appeared again asking the gods to please take her back. This time they refused, insisting he must keep her. Then he said, ?I can?t live with her and I can?t live without her!? [3]

In the century preceding Christ a writer named Horace wanted to improve conditions. His satirical style of humor is termed Horatian. Another writer named Juvenal wrote scathingly. His type is called Juvenalian. One Roman humorist left over a thousand epigrams.

In the Middle Ages, Dante?s most famous work was called The Comedy, later known as Divine Comedy. The Crusades brought a flood of oriental tales to the west. Court jesters developed repertoires of repartee. Chaucer?s Canterbury Tales contain much humor. When printing was invented, joke collections soon appeared which historians tell us provide the foundation for many modem stories. Shakespeare?s writings are full of puns. His humor, among other factors, involves the anatomically ludicrous Falstaff character and the confusion caused by mix-up on the identity of twins.

From ancient, through medieval, to modern times, humor has persisted.

People Are Funny - At All Ages

From infancy to old age humor has its attraction. It doesn?t take many weeks before a baby smiles, then laughs. If tickled, its diaphragm flutters up and down. A child under two in a playful mood will laugh if you put a glass of water to its lips, then draw it away before it can take a swallow. If you repeat the tease two or three times, the baby?s laughter will increase. A child under two will also laugh if when holding it in your arms you suddenly let it drop a few inches, or if you peek at it from one side of an object, then hide your face, then peek out from the other side.

By the time a child goes to school he will laugh at things he sees and hears. He doesn?t need to be tickled. Children appreciate humor. A cat walking into a classroom will make children laugh. What early grader fails to be amused on hearing how Puss in Boots convinced the boastful magician to change himself into a mouse and be eaten?

Though development of one?s sense of humor is usually omitted from self-improvement programs and college curricula, a course in humor was offered for a while by the University of Florida.

To cater to adult love of laughter most secular magazines devote much space to humor. Reader?s Digest has carried several anecdotal sections such as ?Life in These United States?, ?Your Slip Is Showing?, and ?Laughter - the Best Medicine?. The Saturday Evening Post, famed for its cartoons and ?Post Scripts?, also has carried a humorous feature called ?The Perfect Squelch?.

Not only does humor appeal to all ages, but also to both sexes. One battery of tests indicated that men were more easily amused even by not-so-funny stories, but that women were better judges of what was or wasn?t humorous.

People Are Funny - In All Places

Because humor is human, it is found in all groups round the world. The Chinese have their ?Confucius say?, Persian wit is best known to us through The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Most people have heard the Sphinx riddle of Egypt, ?What in the morning has four legs, at noon two legs, at evening three legs?? The answer is man, who in the morning of life crawls on all fours, at high noon strides erect on two feet, but at eventide needs a crutch.

The familiar story of the old husband with two wives, the younger of whom plucked out his gray hairs, and the older of whom pulled his black hairs, leaving him bald and pleasing neither wife, appears in the Hebrew Talmud, Chinese joke books, as well as several others. The Koran says, ?He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh.? The Russian people recently appealed for more humor in their TV programs, complaining in letters to their newspapers that their present TV diet was downright boring.

Though all nations have a sense of humor, they do not necessarily laugh at the same things. One nation may find as many things amusing as another nation, yet the things that amuse may vary greatly. We laugh at mother-in-law jokes, whereas peoples whose cultures grant mothers-in-law no authority find such jokes pointless. Though the basis of humor remains the same the world around, variety of environment and national character influence a nation?s humor. The stern Scots have many jokes on death; the romantic French on weddings. Some humor books have sections labeled ?Scots jokes?, ?Irish jokes?, ?African-American jokes?, and so on. It has been said that American literature from Ben Franklin to Mark Twain to Irvin Cobb has a brand of humor mostly its own.

Humor is subjective, as indefinable as beauty, socially conditioned and fragile. Jokes change with the cultural situation. What one generation roared at may draw no reaction from the next generation. If another group doesn?t find our brand of humor amusing it doesn?t mean their sense of humor is inferior to ours. It merely means that they have not been psychologically conditioned to appreciate that particular type of joke. It has been said that if the proper mood were created, a joke could be made on any theme. Often related is Samuel Johnson?s boast that he could spontaneously create a joke on any subject. ?The King?, some immediately suggested, thinking they had him, for who would dare joke about royalty? Came Johnson?s quick response, ?The King is not a subject?.

Where any nation?s literature is sufficiently abundant, humor in its broadest sense is bound to come out in some form, whether caricatures, mimicry, cartoons, comics, jokes, ridicule, fun, mirth, laughter, puns, jests, riddles, fables, irony, satire or sarcasm.

During a missionary conference at a large church at which every major mission field of the world was represented, an interested listener asked every speaker if the people he worked among had a sense of humor. In every case the answer was in the affirmative. Yes, people are funny everywhere.

People Are Funny - In Unlikely Circumstances

A raven had found its way behind the pulpit of a dignified Scots church. Just as the minister began to preach, the raven croaked out, ?Stop yer bletherings; stop yer bletherings.? Though the congregation was composed of staid Scots Christians, the sound of muffled mirth wafted through the church. God has made us to laugh, even in the most unlikely of situations. Once at a concert during the short silence between parts in a Beethoven symphony, someone sneezed. The natural result was laughter, though somewhat suppressed by politeness. You can?t keep laughter out of life. It will seep through consciously or unconsciously.

In a day when Puritan sternness permeated much of English church life, Matthew Henry?s famous commentary radiated gems of genuine wit. Commenting on the creation of Eve from the rib of Adam, he wrote rather beautifully but with the sparkle of wit, ?Woman was taken from man?s side, not from his head to rule over him, nor from his feet to be trodden down by him, but from beneath his shoulder to be protected by him and from next to his heart to be loved by him.?

Despite the gloom and chill melancholy of Puritan life in early America, when everything that savored of brightness, cheerfulness and frivolity was frowned on, Puritan life was far from being devoid of humor. Flashes of wit pierced the sternness more often than is usually thought. The New England Puritans were not as gloomy as sometimes made out to be.

The charge has been made that the travelers on the Mayflower would have made unbearable company. It is forgotten that among the group was a man who in his younger days was a trusted friend of Queen Elizabeth?s Secretary of State, also a ?writer whose later History of Plymou