The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-03-20
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
PERNICIOUS AMUsEMENTS, THE
FOURTH PLAGUE or THE CITIES"
THE CAUSE OF GREAT EVIL. PLEAS
URES JUDGED BY MORAL EFFECTS.

THE CAUSE OF GREAT EVIL. PLEAS
UREs JUDGED BY MORAL EFFECTS.
BROOKLYN. n. Y. March t15.-The
fourth sermon of the series on the
Plague of the Cities, was delivered
to-day by the Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage on Vice-causing Amusements.
The text was II Samuel, ii. IA: let
the young men now arise and play be-
fore us"
There are two armies encamped by
the pool of Gideon. The time hangs
heavily on their hands. One army
proposes a game of sword fencing.
Nothing could be more healthful and
innocent. The other army accents 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 sportfulness ended in
violence, each one taking his contest
ant by the hair. and then with the
sword thrusting him in the side, so that
that which opened in innocent fun end
ed in the massacre of all the twenty
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? | have no SYM
pathy with a straightiacket religion.
This is very bright world to me, and
| propose to do all ] can to make 1t
bright for others. | never could step
to dead march. A book years ago is
sued says that Christian man has a
right to some amusements: for instance,
if he comes home at night weary from
his work, and, feeling the need of re-
creation, puts on his slippers and goes
into his garnet and walks lively around
the floor several times there can be no
harm in it.
| believe the church Of God has made
a tremendous mistake in trying to sup
press the sportfulness of youth and drive
out from men their love of amusement.
If God ever implanted anything in Us
He implanted this desire. But instead
OF providing for this demand Of our ma
ture the church of God has, for the
main part, ignored it. AS in riot, the
mayor plants battery at the end Of the
street and has it fired off, so that every
thing 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 batteries of condemnation
and fire Unfortunately. Everything
is condemned. But my Bible com
mends those who use the world without
abusing it, and in the natural world
God has done everything TO please and
amuse us. In poetic figure we some
times speak of natural objects as being
in pain but it is a mere fancy. Poets
say the clouds weep. but they never yet
sled a tear: and that the winds sigh.
but they never did have any trouble:
and that the storm bowls, but it never
lost its temper The world is a rose
and the universe a garland.
And | am glad to know that in all our
cities there are plenty of places where
we may find elevated moral entertain
ment. But all honest men and good
woman will agree with me in the state
ment that one of the worst plaques OF
these cities is corrupt amusement. Null
titudes have gone down under the
blasting influence never to rise. III we
may Judge of what is going on in many
of the places of amusement by the So
donnie pictures on board fences. and in
many of the show windows, there is not
a much lower depth of prohigacy to
reach. At Naples. Italy, they keep
such pictures locked up from indiscrim-
mate inspection. Those pictures were
exhumed from Pompeii and are not fit
for human gaze. If the efTrOntery of
bad places of amusement in hanging out
improper advertisements 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.
70 help stay the plague now raging.
project certain principles by which you
may Judge in regard to an amusement
or recreation, finding out for yourself
whether it is right or whether it is
wrong.
| 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 multiplication
tables and statistics. If you show them
an exquisite picture they will begin to
discuss the pigment involved in the
cOloring. If yoI show them beautiful
rose they will submit it to abotanical
analysis, which is only a post norton
examination of a 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 their soul, in billOw
after billow of reverberating laughter
They seem as if nature had built them a
contract and made them a bungling
job out OF it. But blessed be God, there
are people in this world who have
bright faces. and whose life is a song.
an anthem, p9an of victory. Even
their troubles are like the vines that
crawl up the side of a great tower, on
the top of which the sunlight sits, and
the soft airs 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. # you but touch the hem of
their garment you are healed.
There are amuSementS that send q
man next day to his work bloodShOt,
yawning. stupid, nauSeated: and they
are wrong kinds of amusement. They
are entertainments that give a man dis
gust with the drudgery of life with
tools because they are not swords. with
working aprons because 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 adven-
ture. love that takes poison and shoots
itself. moonlight adventures and hair
breadth escapes. you may depend upon
it that YOU are the sacrificed victim of
unsatisfed pleasure. Our recreatiOns
are intended to build us up: and If they