The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1879-01-30
RIBALD REvELRrES.
Another Clerical Thunderbolt Hurled
into the Ranks of Fashionable Sin.
Rev. J. D. Barbee On Amusements.


concluding sermon of Rev. j. d
Barbee upon Modern Worldly
ADJUSTMENTS. If any of them con
jectured. from a consideration OF
the learned preachers well-known
llberality of thought, that they were
to hear an excuse for sin and
be granted privileges to indulge
their bent towards the wicked
world and its doubtful pleasures,
they were sadly disappointed. He
reasoned with an irresistible logic
and from an incontrovertible stand.
point of facts that carried every
thing before them. His words,
sharp as Damascus blades, pierced
to the core and uprooted and eX-
posed all the horrid and rotten eff
fects of sinful indulgence in fash
ionable revelries.
The text was taken from John 4c.,
5 to 15v.-detailing the converse
ton of Jesus with the Samaritan
woman at the well. He said the
world was wrapped in error upon
this as upon all other subjects. 1t
is thought by many that christian
ity dehumanizes a man and substi
tutes supernatural conditions for
the natural. Many good and relig-
ious people, under the idea that
they are infallible when once inside
the kingdom of grace, wear their
religion as straight-jacket, eat for
health alone, talk only in measured
and solemn words, observe the most
rigid moroseness of manner and
make all about them austere an
forbidding. Another error crops
out in the opinion of others who do
not think that religion is either
a source of pleasure or a rule of
morals, but wear their religion as
loose garment thrown around
their shoulders, and regard it OILY
as a bridge by which they mag
cross tie river of death, and if there
were a permanent bridge spanning
that dark ehasm they would aban
don theirs and give themselves up
to worldly pleasures. These peo-
pie would stare in incredulous
if you were to tell them
that religion is designed not only
to save man beyond the flood of
time, but that his greatest pleasures
in this world must be drawn from
its observance; and they would al
most be insulted if you insist that
their profession of religion binds
them to strive to feel and know for
themselves that religion is a pleas
lre, and that it is not a mere me-
:hanical cOnJrivance to carry men
% Heaven.
AS in everything else where ex-
,remes are entertained, truth is
'Ound in the happy medium be-
,ween these two errors. Ali ANNA
ed nature is fond of amusement.
Animals have their seasons of diver
ion, and even inanimate creation
to those conditions that
make men happy. 1t is a part of
human nature to seek recreations |
nd it is necessary and useful to !
he well-being of man, both phys
cally and mentally. The physical
is so constituted that |
mental states affect physical condi-
ions, and Uice versa, demonstrating
close relation between mind and
natter. A physical disturbance of
be human frame is telegrauhed to
he base of the brain, the seat of
ervous organism, and this in turn
communicates it to those neIghbor-
10 lobes that contain the brain
nat feed the thoughts, the seat of
rental functions, and the mind sym
with the body and is de
ressed or enlivened with like effect.
IN the other hand, depress man
lentally and a reverse process sets
p and the physical frame responds
nd suffers or enjoys in keeping
18th the mind. Hence, for physic-
and as we'll as mental comfort,
e need amusements both for the
ealth of body and mind, and the
uestion now is, what shall it be?
He had labored twenty-six con-
,cutive years to gain the consent
t his mind to tolerate some of the
fashionable worldly diversions.
e was himself raised the supervIs
: of younger brothers and sisters
nd he learned to know their wants
nd likes and delighted to pander to
lem, and for the sake of trOlic-
,me youth he tried to excuse and
some pleasurable indiscre-
ons; but the more closely he in
the farther he got from it, /
ntil to-day he was firmly rooted in {
lie belief that the church and its '
inis ters should speak out in de e
lnciation of the fashionable sins 8
the day.
In->the mere act of card playing |
ere is no more harm than in GRO 1
let. The latter, however, is al t
avs played innocently, while the 8
rmer, although it may be used l
nocently, is an instrument of hell q
I'd has worked great misfortunes /
I'd sent many souls to perdition. l
besotted gambler, he said, is L
bber and villain of the deepest
7e, and if there Is a lower hell it is
fit receptacle for this dissOlute,
llainous soul. No member of the
Iu7ch is representing Christ who t
.rmits a pack of these implements IL
destruction to be used in his C
,use.
OF all that is low, dirty, shock t
gly and monstrously repulsive in t.
e extreme, the circus is the belle. C
1der its pavilion jostle and elbow p
manner of men and women on an II
uality. 1t finds a correct coun "
part in the infamous social equal &
enactment falsely yclept the e,
'ivil Rights Bill" If the dirty
1uthed clown whom you pay to p
plaud were to utter his obscenity
d practice his vulgar pranks upon
ur streets, the police would in f
lntly knab him; and if he were to ii
nture in your parlor he would not OF
lifted out on the toe of your ~
OF but al the muzzle of repeater &c
christian man or woman TO be ii
IN jostling or mingling with this is
otley throng and listening to and q
messing the disgusting perform .,
ce is shamefully sinful and pre- N
SfarnnGlt1 I,cnraaafnlf i