The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-06-10
TALMAGE ON ADJUSTMENTS.
HOW TO DIscR1M1HArE BETWEEN
GOOD ARD BAD.

HOW TO DIsCRIMIHATE BETWEEN
GOOD AHD BAD.
Danger OF Over-indulgencc-Peopic
who Seem to Have Been Bulit by
Contract-Imasinative Ptct"res'
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage preached at
the Brooklyn tabernacle on How shall
we discriminate in regard to operas, the
atricals, billiards and all amusements,
good and bad?"
The text selected was the twenty.ifth
verse of the sixteenth chapter of Judges:
"And it came to pass when their hearts
were merry that they said, Call for Sam.
son that he may make US sport AND
they called for Samson out of the prison
house and he made them sport"
Mr.. Talmage said there were amuse-
ments that were destructive and brought
down disaster and death upon the heads
of those who practiced them. The three
thousand persons who died that day in
GAIA were as nothing compared with the
tens of thousands who had been destroy
ed. body, mind and soul by bad amuse-
mcnts and good amuscments carried to
excess.
He had no sympathy with ecclesiasti-
cal straight jackets or with that whole
sale denunciation of amusement to which
many were pledged. The church of God
had made tremendous mistake in trying
to suppress the sportfulness of youth.
There were some persons who hated bill
liards, they dcspised charades, they alb
horred tablcaux. They said "away with
all parlor games" They looked as if
they would like to have our youth
dressed in blue uniform like the children
of an orphan asylum, to march down the
pnth of life to the tune of the "Dead
March" in "Saul."
The Young Mems Christian associa-
tions OF the country were doing glo-
rious work. They had influences of the
best kind, and now they were edding
gymnasiums and bowling alleys, where,
apart from evil surroundings, our young
men might get physical as we'll as spir-
itual Improvement
Students spent seven years preparing
for the ministry, and they came out with
bronchitis, dyspepsia and liver complaint.
They crawled up into the pulpit and the
people said, "Don't he look Eeavenly!'
because be looked sickly. Who was this
black angel called religion9 Our relig-
ion was bright angel. Taking her
place in the soul, she pulled a rope that
reached to the skies. and set all the bells
of heaven a-chiming.
Amusements might be judged by their
hcalthtul results or their baeful reaction.
There were people who were sort OF
combination of multiplication tables and
statistics. They seemed as if nature had
built them by contract and had made
bungling job Of it. Persons OF an exu'
berant nature would do we'll to look at the
reaction of their amusements. If an
amusement sent person home at night
nervous so that he could not sleep, and
he arose in the morning. not because ne
was slept out but because his duty
dragged him from his slumbers, he had
been where he should not have been.
If an amusement sent any one home
longing for life of romance and thrill
ling adventure, love that takes poison or
shoots itself, midnight adventures aud
hairbreadth escapes, that person might
depend upon it he was sacrificed victim
to unsonctiicd pleasure. If our recrea'
tions pulled US down as to our moral or
physical strength, they were obnoxious:
Those amusements were wrong that led
man into expenditure beyond his means.
The table has been robbed to pay the
club, the children's wardrobe had been
cheated ana the table cloth of the corner
saloon was in debt to the wife's faded
dress. Ladies whose lifetime business it
was to ego shopping" had their counter
parts in uneducated children and bank
ruptcies that shocked the money market
and appalled, the church; had theirs in
drunkenness staggering across the richly
figured carpet Of the mansion, dashlng
into the mirror, and drowning the carol
of music with the whooping of sons
come home to break their mothers rshcarts.
When men went into amusements that
they could not afford, they first borrowed
what they could not earn, and then stole
what they could not borrow:
Mr.. Talmagc then pictured the career
of q youth who had indulgcd in unre.
strained amusements. "What is this2
Oh, this reckless young man has been
killed in q grogshop fight. Carry him
home to his fathers house. Parents will
come down and wash his wounds and
close his eyes in death. They forgive
him all he ever did. The prodigal has
gone home at last. Mother will &c to
her little garden and cut her choicest
flowers and twist them into chap!et Tor
the silent heart of a wayward boy, and
push back from the bloated brow the
long locks that were once her pride"
Amusements might be judged by
their effect upon physical health. People
needed physical recuperation. There
were some who thought it good sign
to be poorly. God would hold every
one responsible for their invalidism if it
was their own fault. Physical develop
ment which showed itself in fabulous
lifting, in perilous rope walking or in
purilistic encounters excited only con-
tempt, but he confessed to great ad.
miration for the man who had great
soul in an athletic body.
Amusements should also be judged by
the companionship they afforded. Any
amusement that gave distaste for do
mestic life was bad.
Every man had a good aud a bad
angel. To follow the leadership of the
one meant Christian resurrection. To
be taken in by tho allurements and
temptations of the other meant damna-
ton.