Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-03-21
PLEASURES FATAL CUP.
DR.. Talmage Points Out the Peril
of Fatal lndulgences.
Subject "Bal.fuI Amusemen.s.y

pool of Gideon. The time hangs heavily OF
their hands. One army proposes game O.
sword fencing. Nothing could be NOR,
healthtul and innocent. The other army &C
/ cepts the challenge. Twelve men agains
twelve men, the sport opens, But something
went adversely. Perhaps one Of the swords
men got an unlucky clip, or in some way hat
ms IRE aroused, aud that which opened il
sportfulness ended in violence each one tax
ing his contestant by the hair, and then with
the sword thrusting him in the side SO thai
that which opened in innocent fun ended in
the massacre of all the twenty-four sports
men. Was there ever q better illustration
OF what was true then, and is true now, that
that which is innocent may be made de
structives
hat of worldly nature is more i'm
1 portant and Strengthening and innocent than
amusement, and yet what has counted more
! yletimss have no sympathy with straight.
( jacket religion. This is very bright world
10 me, and propose to do all [ can to make
1t Fright for others.
J never could keep step to deal march.
| A book years ago issued says that a Chris
tan man has right to some amusements.
For instance if he comes home at night
weary from his work, and feeling in need OF
recreation, puts ON his slippers, and goes into
his garrett and walks Lively round the floor
several times there can be no harm in it.
believe the church of God has made tire.
mencous mistake in trying to suppress the
sportfulness of youth and drive out from
men their love OF amusement If God ever
desire
But instead Of providing for this demand
! OF our nature, the church of God has for the
main part, ignored it. As in riot, the
mayor plants a battery at the end of the
/ street, and has it fired off SO that everything
Is cut down that happens to stand in the
range, the good as well as the bad, so there
are men in the church who plant their bat
teries of condemnation and fire away indis-
criminate.y. Everything is condemned.
But my Bible commends those who use the
world without abusing it, and in the natural
world God has done everything to please and
amuse US In poetic figures we somi times
| speak of natural objects as being in pain.
but it is mere fancy. Poets say the clouds
! weep, but they never yet shed tear; and
the winds sight but they never did have
| any trouble; and that the storm howis but
1t never lost its temper. The world is a
/ rose, and the universe a garland.
| L am glad to know that in all our ties
! there are plenty Of places where we may find
! elevated, moral entertainment But all
honest men and good women will agree with
me in the statement that one of the worst
plaques of these cities is corrupt amusement
Muititudes have gone down under the blast
ing influence never TO rise. Il we may Judge
OF what is going on in many of the places of
amusement by the Sodomic pictures on
board fences and in many Of the show
windows, there is not a much lower depth of
/ profligacy to reach At Naples, Italy, they
( keep such pictures locked IN from iudiS.
criminate inspection. These pictures were
exhumed from Pompeii and are not fit for
| public gaze If the effrontery of bad places
! of amusement in handing out improper adj
| vertisements of what they are doing night
10y night grows worse i'll the same propor-
! ton, in fifty years New York and Brooklyn
viii beat not only Pompeii, but Sodom.
/ To help stay the plague now raging pro-
/ iect certain principles by which you may
| judge in regard to any amusement or re
/ creation, finding out for yourself whether it
I is right or whether it Is wrong
! remark in the first place that You can
I judge of the moral character of any amuse-
ment by its heathful result or by its baleful
reaction. There are people who seem made
| up of hard facts. They are a combination of
multiplication tables and statistics, If you
show them an exquisite picture they will be-
| gin to discuss the pigments involved in the
coioring. If you show them a beautiful rose
they will submit it TO botanical analysis,
which is only the post-mortem examination
of a flower They have no rebound in their
nature They never do anything mora than
smile, There are no great tides of feeling
surging up from the depths of their soul in
/ billow alter blllow of reverberatng laugh
! ter, They seem as if nature had built them
by contract and made a bungling job of it.
But, blessed be God there are people in the
| world who have bright faces, and whose life
is song. an anthem, a pecan of victory
Even their troubles are like the vines that
crawl up the side of great tower, on the top
of which the sunlight sits and the soft air
of summer hold perpetual carnival They
are the people you like to have come to your
house; they are the people / like to have
! come TO my house. If you but touch the
! hem of their garments you are healed.
Now it is these exhilarent and sympathe-
tic and warm hearted people that are most
| tempted to pernicious anu. ements In pro-
! portion as a ship is swift it wants a strong
helmsman; i'll proportion as a horse is gay
it wants stout driver and these people Of
ezuberant nature viii do we'll to look a the
reaction of oil their amusements. If an
amusement sends you home at night nervous
so that you cannot sleep, and you rise up in
the morning, not because you are slept out
but because your duty drags you from yout
| SAUNDERS, you have been where you ought
not TO have been. There are amusements
| that send man next day to his work blood
shot yawping, stupid, nauseated; and they
are wrong kinds of amusement. They are
entertainments that give man disgust with
the drIdGery of life, with tools because they
they are not robes, with cattle because they
are not infatuated bulls of the arena.
If any amusement sends you home longing
for life of romance and thrilling adventure,
love that takes poison and shoots itself,
| moonlight adventures and hair breadth es-
capes, you may depend upon it that you are
the sacrificed victim of unsanctified pleasure.
Cur recreaiops are intended to build up,
and if they pull lis down ms to our moral or
as to our physical strength you may come to
! the conclusion that they are obnoxious
There is nothing more depraving than at
tendance upon amusements that are full of
! innuendo and low suggestion. The young
man enters. At first he sits far back, with
bis hat on and his coat collar up, fearful that
somebody there may know him. Several
nights pass on. He takes off his hat earlier
and puts his coat collar down The blush
that first came into his cheek when anything
indecent was enacted comes no more TO hi;
cheek. Farewell, young mani You have
\ probably started on the long road which
ends in consummate destruction. The
stars of hope will go out one by one
until you will be left in utter darkness, Hear
you not the rush of the maelstrom, in whose
outer circle your boat now dances making
merry with the whirling waters? But vol
are being drawn in, and the gentle motion
will become terrific agitation You cry fo
help In vain! You pull at the oar to put
back, but tie struggle will not avail! Yol
will he tossed and dashed and shipwrecke,
and swallowed in the whirlpool that has al
ready crushed in its wrath ten thousan,
hulks.
Young men who have Just come from
country residence to city residence will d
well to be on guard and let no one Undue
you to places of improper amusement l
Is nightly alluring when a young man
long citizen, offers to show q new conner al
| around.
Still further. Those amnsements are wronl
which lead you into expenditure beyond you
means, Money spent in recreation is no
thrown away. 1t is all folly for us to com
from place of amusement feeling that w
have wasted our money and time. You ma,
| by 1t have made an investment worth NOR
than the transactions that yielded you hun
! dreds or thousands of dollars. But how many
] properties have been riddlei by costly
| amusements.
The first time ever saw the city-it wa
the city of Philadelphia was a mere lad.
stopped at hotel, end l remem Der in th
| eVent!de one of these men piled me with hi
internal art. He saw | was green. He wante,
| TO show me the sights of the town H
painted the path of sin until it looked liS.
| emerald; but was afraid of him | shove,
back from the basiisk--I made up my min,
ne was oasilisk. 1 remember how he wheele,
ms char round IN front OF me, and with ;
! concentrated and diabolical effort atten,n.e(
70 destroy my soul; but there were eoot
angels IN the air that night. It was no goot
resolution nmy part, but it was the ali en-
comprising grace of good God that deliy
cred me; Beware! beware oh, young man
1here Is way that seemeth right unto a
man, but the end thereof is DEATH"
The table has been robbed to pay the club
The champagne has cheated the children's
wardrobe. The carousing party has burned