Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-03-16
HOW FOOLS MOCK AT SIN
DR.. TALMAGE'S DISCOURSE ON BALE
Full ADJUSTMENTS.

A Careful Discrimination Between limo
cent and Injurious Qualifications Al
WAYS Important, Is just Now of Inn
mense Importance.
New YORK, March 15.-Ths series of
sermons DR. Talmage is preaching IN
this city and Brooklyn on The
/ Plaques of the Cities" is attracting gen
eral attention the morning service
i'm BROOKLYN and at the evening ser
vices held under the auspices OF The
Christian Herald in this city, the num-
Der OF persons who come to hear the
sermons is far larger than either OF the
buildings can accommodate. The ser
mon today, which is the fourth OF the
series is on "BalefuI Amusements.
The text was II Samuel H. IA, Let the
young men now arise and play before
us"
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 limo
cent. The other army accepts the chal-
Ienge. 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 tl1rusting him in the side, so
~
fun ended in the massacre OF all the
twenty four spOrtsmen. Was there
ever a better illustration of what was
| true then and is true now, that that
which is innocent may be made de
| structive?
What of a worldly nature is more
| important and strengthening and limo
| cent than amusement, and yet what
! has counted more victims? [ have no
sympathy with a straitiacket relig-
ion. This is very bright world to me,
and l propose to do all I can to make it
| bright for others.
! NATURES HIALTHFUIl ADJUSTMENTS.
never could keep step to dead
march \ book years ago issued says
that a 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 recrea-
ton. 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 tremendous mistake
in trying to suppress the spOrtfulness Of
youth and drive out from men their
love of amusement If God ever inn
planted anything in us he implanted
this desire. But instead of providing
for this demand of our nature the
church of God has, for the main part,
| ignored it.
As in a riot, the mayor plants bat
terry at the end of the street, and has it
fred off so that everything is cut down
that happens to stand in the range,
! the GOD as we'll as the bad so there
are men in the church who plant their
/ batteries of condemnation and fire
away Unfortunately Everything is
condemned. But my Bible cOmmends
those who use the world without abus-
! ing it. and in the natural world God
/ llCNS OlOIIC 0NO1 l1IIIIS5 ~ lJACStoC anu
amuse Us. In poetic figure we some
times speak of natural objects as being
in pain, but it is Il mere fancy. Poets
say the clouds weep but they never
yet shed a tear; and that the winds
sigh, but they never did have any
trouble; and that the storm howls, 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 en-
tertainment. But all honest men and
good women will agree with me in the
statement that one of tie worst plaques
of these cities is corrupt amusement.
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 Sod
onic pictures ON board fences and in
many Of the show windows there is not
a much lower depth of profligacy to
reach. vt Naples, Italy, they keep
such pictures locked up from indiscrim-
mate inspection Those pictures were
exhumed from POmpeii and are not fit
for public gaze. IF the effrontery of
bad places of amusement in hanging
out improper advertisements of what
they are doing night by night grows
worse III the same proportion, in fifty
years New York and Brooklyn will beat
not only Pompeii, but Sodo1n.
To help stay the plague now raging |
project certain principles by which you
| in, To
or recreation, finding out for Yourself
whether it is right or whether it is
wrong.
JUDGE THEM BY THEIR FRUITS.
1 remark, in the first place, that you
can Judge Of the moral character of
any amusement by its healthful result
or by its baleful 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 exquisite picture they
will begin to discuss the pigments in
volved in the coloring If you show
them a beautiful rose they will submit
| it to a botanical analysis, which is only
| the pOSt-mOrtem examination of
| 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 bill
low of reverberating 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, 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
airs of summer hold perpetual carnival.
They are the people you like to have
come to your house; they are people
like to have come to my house. If you
but touch the hem of their garments
you are healed
Now. it is these exhilarant and Sym-