The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-04-04
PLAQUES OF THE CITIES.
STRONG DISCOURSE PREACHED BY
REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE.
-Daleful Amusements the Subject - A
Great COncourse Present-The Speak
or Specifies Amusements That Are
Harmful and Those That Are Not.


NEW YORK. March The series of ser
anons DIR. Talmage is preaching in this city
and BROOKLYN on "The Plaques of the
Cities is attracting general attention.
At the morning service in Brooklyn and
Ak the evening services held under the
auspices of The Christian Herald. in this
city, the number of persons who come to
hear the sermons is far larger than either
of the buildings can accommodate. The
Bermon to-day, which is the fourth of the
series, is on "Baleful Amusements.n The
text was II Samuel, ii, IA: s'Let the young
men now arise and play before u.s."
There two armies encamped by the
pool of Gibeon. The time hangs heavily
on their hands. One army proposes game
OF sword fencing. Nothing could be more
healthful and innocent. The other ;.cmy
accepts the challenge. Twelve men against
twelve men, the sport opens. But some
thing 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 contestant by the hair,
SaRd then with the sword thrusting him in
the side, so that that which opened in in
nocent fun ended in the massacre of all the
twenty-four sportsmen. Was there ever a
better illustration of what was true then,
geEnd is true now, that that which is inno
cent may be made destructive2
Sportant and strengthening and innocent
than amusement, and yet what has count
ed more victims? / have no sympathy with
q straitjacket religion. This is a very
bright world to me, and propose to do all
i can to make it bright for others.
YOUTHS sPoRTIvENEss SHOULD NOT BE SUP
PRESSED.
never could keep step to a dead march.
"A book years ago issued says that a Chris
tian 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 garret and walks lively
round 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 implanted
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 a battery at the end of the
street, and has it rired 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
AWAY indiscriminately. Everything is con-
demned. But my bible commends those
who use the world without abusing it, and
in the natural world God has done every
thing to please and amuse US. In poetic
Agare we sometimes speak of natural OBJ
jects as being in pain, but it is a mere
fancy. Poets say the clouds weep, but
they never yet shed tear; and the winds
sigh, but they never did have any trouble;
and that the storm howls but it never lost
it's temper. The world is a rose, and the
universe garland.
And 1 am glad to know that in all our
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 Multitudes 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
Sodomic pictures on board fences and in
many of the show windows there is not a
much lower depth of profgacy to reach
At Naples, Italy, they keep such pictures
locked up from indiscriminate inspection.
Those pictures were exhumed from Pom
Peii 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 in the same proportion, in fifty years
New York and Brooklyn will beat not only
P0mpeii, but Sodom.
To help stay the plague now raging l
may judge in regard to any amusement or
recreation, finding out for yourself whether
1t IS right or whether it is wrong.
BY ITS FRUITS KNOW IT.
1 remark in the first place that you can
judge of the moral character of any amuse-
ment by its healthful result or by its bale
fni reaction. There are people who seem
made up of hard facts. They are a com
bination of multiplication tables and sta
sistics. If you show them an exquisite
picture they will begin to discuss the pig
1nents involved in the coloring. If you
show them a beautiful rose they will sub
INIT 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 more than smile
Hhere 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 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 a song, an anthem, a paean of
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 per-
petual carnival. They are the people YOU
like to have come to your house; they are
the people like to have come to my house
IL you but touch the hem of their gar
ments you are healed.
Now it is these exhilarant and sympa.
thetic and warm hearted people that are
most tempted to pernicious amusements
In proportion as a ship is swift it wants a
strong helmsman; in proportion horse
is gay it wants stout driver; and these
people of exuberant nature will do well to
look at the reaction of all their amuse-
ments. If an amusement sends you home
at night nervous SO that you cannot sleep,