The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1891-03-21
BALEFUL ADJUSTMENTS.
DR.. Talmage on the Fourth Plague
of the Cities.

DIR. Talmage on the Fourth Plague
of the Cities.
Judging Amusements According to Their
Moral EGects-Ruinous Pleasures and
Destructive Indulgences-PIeas
For the Home.
In his fourth sermon at Brooklyn on
the plague of the cities Rev. L. De
Witt Talmage took for his subject
"Baleful Amusements." The text was
ii. Samuel, ii. IA: Let the young men
now arise and play before u.s." He
said:
There are two armies encamped by
the pool of Gideon. The time hangs
heavily on their hands. One army pro-
poses a game of sword fencing. Moth
ing could be more healthful and inno-
cent The other army accepts the
challenge. Twelve men against twelve
men, the sport opens. But something
went adversely. Perhaps one of the
swordsmen got an unlucky clip, or in
some way had his ire aroused, and that
which opened in sport ended in
violence, each one taking his contestant
by the hair, and then with the sword
thrusting him in the side, so hat that
which opened in innocent fun ended in
the massacre of all the t~wenty-four
sportsmen. Was there ever a better
illustration of what was true then, and
is now, that that which is innocent may
be made destructive?
What of a worldly nature is more i'm
portant and strengthening and innocent
than amusement, and yet what has
counted more victims? l have no SYM
pathy with a straightforward religion.
I propose to do all 1 can to make It
bright for others. l never could step
to a dead march. A book years ago is
sued says that q Christian man has a
right to some ~amusements; for instance,
If he ome home at night weary from
his work, and, feeling the need of recre-
alton, puts on his slippers and goes into
his garnet and walks lively around the
floor several times there can be no harm
in it.
I believe the church of God has made
a tremendous mistake in trying to sup
press the sportfulness of youth and
ment. If God eve implanted anything
in us He implanted this desire. But in
stead Of providing for this demand of
our nature the church of God has, for
the main part, ignored il. AS in a riot,
the mayor plants n battery at the end
of the street and has it fired off, so that
everything is cut down hat happens to
stand in the range, the good rs well as
the bad, SO there are men in the church.
who plant their batteries of c~ondemna-
ton, and fire away Unfortunately.
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.
And I am glad to know that in all our
cities there are plenty of places where
we may Esd elevated moral entertain
ment. But all honest men and good
women will agree with me in the state
ment that one of the worst plaques of
these cities is currupt amusements.
Multitudes have gone down under the
blasting influence never to rise. If 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 q much lower depth of profiigacy to
reach. At Naples, Italy, they keep such
pictures locked up from indiscriminate
inspection. Those pictures were ex-
humed from Pompeii and are not fit for
public gaze. II the effrontery Of bad
places of amusement in hanging out
improper advertisement of what they
are doing night by night grows worse in
the same proportion, in fifty years New
York and Brooklyn will beat not only
Pompeii, but Sodom.
i remark, in the first place, that you
can judge of. the moral character of
any amusement by its healthful result
or by its hateful reaction. There are
people who seem made up of hard
facts. They are a combination of null
tiplication tables and statistics. If you
show them an excellent picture they
will begin to discuss the pigments in
volved in the coloring. If You show
them n beautiful rose they will submit
it to a botanical analysis, which is only
the post norton examination of q
flower. They have no rebound in their
nature. They never do anything more
than smile. There are no great tides of
feeling surging up from the depths of
verberating laughter. They seem as
If nature had built them by contract,
and made a bungling job out of it. But
blessed be God, there are people in the
world who have bright faces and whose
life is a song, III anthem, n pan of VIC
tory.
Now it is these eXhilarant and SYM
pathetic and warm hearted people that
are most tempted to pernicious muse
ments. In proportion as n ship is swift
1t wants II strong ~helmsman; in proper
ton as a horse is gay, it wants a strong
driver; and these people of exuberant
nature will do we'll to look at the reac-
ton of all their amusements. If an
amusement sends you home at night
nervous SO that you can not sleep, and
you rise up in the morning, not because
you are slept out, but because your
duty drags you from your slumbers,
you have been where you ought not to
have been.
There is nothing more d~epraving than
attendance upon amusements that are
full of innuendo and low suggestion.
The young man enters. At first he
sits far back, with his hat on and his
coat collar up, fearful that some one
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 his cheek. Farewell, young
man! You have probably started On
the long road that ends in consummate
destruction.
Young men who have just come from
country residence to city residence will
do well to be on guard and let no one
Induce you to places of improper amuse-