Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1885-07-04
,.,s.Tal,na Sc on. sAmQsements.

ed at the Brooklyn tabernacle OF
elbow shall we discriminate in re
gard to operas, theatricals, billiard.
and all amuselnents, good and badp
The text selected was the 25th
verse of the 10Th chapter Of Judges;
"And it came to pass when their
hearts we're merry that they said,
Call for Samson that he may make
us SPORT And they called for Sam
son out of the prison house and he
made them sport"
/ Mr.. Talmage said there were
amu>ements that were destructive
and brought down disaster and
death upon The heads of those who
practiced them. The three thons-
and persons who died that day in
GAIA were as nothing compared
with the tens otthonsand> who had
been destroyed, body, mind and
soul by bad tmuSenents and good
anusementS carried toeXceSS.
lie had no sympathy with eccle-
siastical straight jackets or with
that wholesale dcnunciation of
amusement TO which manly were
pledged. The church of God h;ul
made IL tremendous mistake in
trying to suppress the sporr1ulness
OF youth. There were some per
SONS who lated billiards, they de-
spised charadeS, they abhorred tab
leauX. 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 path Of lite to the
tune ofthe "Dead March" in saul"
The Young Mems Christian As
ISOLATION OF the country were doing
Il glorious work. They had inha-
enceS of the best kind, al d now
they were adding gymnasiums and
bowling alleys, where, apart from
-.--:l-..- s-----ez
might get physical ais we'll as spir
itual improvement.
Students spent seven years pre-
pairing for the ministry, and they
came out with bronchitis, dySpep-
STA and liver complaint. They
crawled up into the pulpit and the
people said, "Don't he look heaven
Typ because he looked sickly. Who
was this black angel called religion?
Our religion was IL bright angel
Taking Der place i'll the soul, she
pulled a rope that reached to the
skies, and set all the bells otlleaven
a Ginning.
Amusemcnts might be judged by
their lealthfnl results or their bale
full reaction. There were people
who were IA sort OF combination Of
multiplication tables and statistics.
They seemed as if nature had built
them by contract and had made a
bungIing job of it. Persons Of an
eXuGerant nature would do well to
look at the reaction of their amuse
meuts. II an amusement sent a
person home at night nervous so
that he could not sleep, and he
arose in The morning, not because
he was slept out, but because his
duty dragged him from his Stun.
berS, he had been where lie should
not have been.
IF an amusement sent any one
home longing for life Of romance
and thrilling adventure, love that
takes poison or shoots itself, mid
night adventures and hairbreadth
escapes, that person might depend
upon it he was Il sacrificed victim
to unsanctitied pleasure. II our
recreations pulled us down as to
our moral or physical strength,
they were obnoxious. Those amnse-
ments were wrong that lei a man
into expenditure beyond his means
The table has been robbed to pay
the club, the children's wardrobe
! had been cheated and the table
cloth Of the corner saloon was i'll
debt to the wife's faded Dress
Ladies whose lifetime business it
was to ego shopping" had their
counterparts in uneducated child.
ren and bankruptcies that shocked
the money market and appalled,
the church; had theirs in drunken
ness staggering across the richly
figured carpet Of the mansion, dash
ing into the mirror, and drowning
the carol Of music with the whoop
ing of sons come home to break
their mothers hearts. When men
went into amusementS that they
could not afford, they first borrow :
ed what they could not earn, and
and then stole what they could not
borrow.
Mr.. Talmage then pictured the
career OF a youth who had indulged
in unrestrained amusements.-
.AWhat is this! Oh, this reckless
young man has been killed in a
grogshop fight. Carry him home
to his fathers house. p lrcnts will
come down and wash his wounds
and close lis eyes in death. They
forgive him ali he ever did. The
prodigal has gone home at last
Mother will go to her little garden
and cut her choicest flowers aid
twist them into a cllaplet for the