Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-07-11
SUNDAY B~ALL.rOSsISe.
Address on sabbath Evils and Rase-
ball, Delivered BIZ the Rev. DIR.
Lhndrum. OF the Central Baptist
Church, Last Sunday.

Address on sabbath Evils and Base-
Ball, Delivered BIZ the Rev. DR..
Lhndrum. OF the Central Baptist
Church, Last Sunday.
We publish the following extract from
a discourse delivered by Rev. DR.. Ian.
drum Of the Central Baptist church on
Sunday last on Sabbath evils from a
baseball standpoint. 1t will impress
every reader with the fact that Sunday
base ball playing is most injurious to
society. Dr.. Landrum is no z%ealot; he
10 conservative aud philosophical in his
views as to church and State, and for
this reason, if no other, his views can
not be sneered at, because they carry
with them a weight not to be ignored.
DR.. Landrum said: "As to the game of
baseball, there is a general opinion
among good citizens that it is a bad
thing for any day. Bad because it is a
great waste Of lime and strength without
good results; bad because it is brulalizing
in its tendency. 1t may develop muscle,
but it is not intellectual, not refining,
nor moral. 1t belongs to that plane Of
life on which men are least distinguished
from brutes 1t is a savage thing aud
has no proper place in civilization. The
animal not the mental powers rule, 1t
is but a little above the prize fight 10 its
nature and influences. The prize fight
is ortlawed in civilized communities,
and why should it not be so with base
ball2
Nov, all the evils of baseball are in.
tensi6ed when the game is played on
Sunday. 1t breaks the Sunday laws Of
the country and the law Of God. 1t is
lawful to do good on the Sabbath day,
but never to do evil. The great indus
trial exposition of the world at Phila-
delphia last year was cloted in obedience
to American Sunday lava and the law Of
God. American laws and customs rest
upon the bible. Sunday is a day Of rest,
and it is net lawful to work except in
things demanded by necessity or mercy,
1t is not a legal day. Surely it is neither
necessary, or mercifdlt to play baseball.
Nor is it necessary for men to make
money by baseball on Sunday; nor is it
legal at any time to use the game for
gambling.
mo community should allow any
combination of it's citizens or wanderers
from other communities to corrupt its
youth. This is as dangerous now as when
Cicero warned the Romans of a similar
course pursued by Cataline. That base.
call corrupts the youth is manifest. 1t
draws boys from home on Sunday and
leads them into the worst company. l.
is a school of gambling and b~lasphemy
in which boys and youth are degraded
and rendered unfit for any true useful.
ness in the world.
Baseball is a nuisance. 1t is so to
all good people at eur best hotels, where
the base-ballis,s and their admirers hang
around the entrances, breaking up all
the proprieties and d~ecencies of the
Sabbath; a nuisance to all good citizens
who would use the street.cars for attend.
ing church, or a funeral. Such citizens
feel ashamed to be seen on the cars with
those who are going to the baseball
grounds. Il is an unmiiigated nuisance
to those who reside in the neighborhood
Of baseball grounds. The grounds of q
baseball club render the lots and lands
adjoining we'll nigh valueless. The base
ball patrons have no right to damage
others. 1t is a nuisance, a plague, TO be
Stunned and removed as you would
smallpox. / think in less than ten
years q man will be ashamed to confess
that he ever had anything to do with the
business.
THE present practice is"a violation
of Sunday and an outrage to Christian
feeling; indeed, its tendency ia to annul
the Sunday; aud, let the Sabbath be IN.
Rulled, and the poor will be obliged to
labor seven days and get only the pay
which they now get for six days.
THE Sabbath was made for man
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it
holy. 1t is a notable fact that it was a
Sabbath's sun that first met the gaze OF
man when be awoke TO consciousness
Created on the sixth day, on the seventh
he passed into the unfading glories of a
divine Sabbath. The fact is a beautiful
foresbadowing Of the truth that cheers
the heart Of the believer, who closes his
eyes to a life of care, knowing that he
shall awake in Gods likeness to behold
the glories Of a Sabbath that hath no set.
ting sun