St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-05-23
ON TRIAL.
Opera-Houses, Theaters, Bowling
Alleys, Skating Kinks, Etc.
Thoughts Drawn from the Destruction of
the Temple by samsOn-sermon by
Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage, ID. d.

of amusement. good and bad, on
trial" The text was from Judges,
xvi, %: "And it came to pass when their
hearts were merry that they said: Call
for Samson, 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 three thousand people as
sembled in the Temple of Dagon. They
had come to make sport of eyeless Sam
son. They were all ready for the enter
tainment. They began to clap and pound,
impatient fer the amusement to begin, and
they cried: ''Fetch him out! Fetch him
outw Yonder | see the blind old giant
coming, led by the hand of child into the
very midst of the temple. At his first APP
pearance there goes up shout of laughter
and derision. Tho blind old giant pretends
he is tired and wants to rest himself
against the pillars of the house. So he
says to the lad who leads him: "Show me
where the main pillars are" The lad does
SO. Then the strong man puts his right
hand ON one pillar, and with the mightiest
push that mortal ever made throws him
self forward until the whole house comes
down in thunderous crash, grinding the
audience like grapes in a wiJts-press.
"And so it came to pass when their hearts
were merry that they said: Call for
Samson, that he may make us sport And
they called for Samson out of the prison
house, and he made them sport" In other
words, there are amusements that are de-
structive and bring down disaster and
death upon the heads of those who prac-
tice them While they laugh and cheer
they die. The three thousand who per-
ished that day in the GAIA are as nothing
compared with the tens of thousands who
have been destroyed body, mind and soul
by bad amusements and by good amuse-
ments carried to excess.
In this course of sermons / am now
preaching you must have noticed that
have no sympathy with ecclesiastical
strait Jackets or with that wholesale de-
nunciation of amusements to which many
are pledged. There are great many who
denounce ball-playing. They hate puz-
zles. They despise charades. They abb
hor tableaux. They say: "Away with
all parlor gamesW They talk as if they
would like to have our youth dressed in
D1u6 1khS Ju5 VI DAcAA
asylum, and march down the path of life
to the tune Of the "Dead March in Saul"
They hate blue sash or a rosebud in the
hair or tasseled gaiter, and think man
almost ready for Sing Sing who utters
conundrum. Young Mems Christian Assoc
Citations of the country are doing glorious
work. They have fine reading rooms, and
all the influences are of the best kind, and
are now adding gymnasiums and bowl
ing alleys, where, without any evil
surroundings, our young men may
get physical as well as spiritual
Improvement. We are dwindling away
to a narrow-c hested, weak-armed,
feeble voiced race. When God calls us to
a work in which He wants physical as
well as spiritual athletes, would to God
that the time might soon come when in
all our colleges and theological seminaries,
as at Princeton, a gymnasium shall be
established. We spend seven years of
hard study in preparation for the minis
try, and come out with bronchitis and
dyspepsia and liver complaint, and then
crawl up into the pulpit, and the people
say: "Don't he look Heavenly" because
he looks sickly. Let the Church of God
direct rather than attempt to suppress the
desire for amusement The best men that
the world ever knew have had their
sports. William Wilberforce trundled
hoop with his children. Martin Luther
helped dress the Christmas tree. Minis
tiers have pitched quoits. Philanthropists
have gone a-skating. Prime Ministers
have played ball.
Show me man who never lights up
with sportfulness and has no sympathy
with the recreations of others, and / will
show you man who is stumbling block
to the Kingdom of God. Such men are
caricatures Of religion. They lead young
people to think that man is good in pro-
portion as he groans and frowns and looks
sallow, and that the height of mans
Christian stature is in proportion to the
length of his face. | would trade off Eve
hundred such. men for one bright-faced
radiant Christian on whose face are the
words: Rejoice eYermore!D Our reIi-
gion is bright angel-feet bright, eyes
bright, wings bright. Taking her place in
in the soul, she pulls rope that reaches
to the skies and sets all the bells of Heav-
en- a-chiming. There are some persons
who when talking to minister always
feel it polite to look lugubrious. Go forth,
0 people, to your lawful amusement God
means you to be happy. But when there
are so many sources of innocent pleasure
why tamper with anything that is dan
gerous and polluting?
Now, all opera-houses, theaters, bowl
ing -alleys, skating -rinks, and all styles of
amusement, good and bad, I put on trial
to-day, and judge of them by certain car
dinaI principles. First, you may judge of
any amusement by its healthful result, or
by its ba1efu1 reaction. II an amusement
sends you home at night nervous 50 you
can not sleep, and you rise in the morning,