The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1891-03-27
BALEFUL ADJUSTMENTS.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage Continues
to Attack the Plaques.
PerniciOus and Sinful Amusements Fruit
full Factor I'm Luring Young and
Old from the Paths of
Rectitude.

The. following discourse, in continual
ton of his series of attacks on ''The
Plaques of the Great Cities" was de-
ivered by Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage in
Brooklyn and New York city, from the
text:
Let the young men now arise and play be-
fore us-u Samuel H., IL
There are two armies encamped by
the pool of Gibeon. The time hangs
heavily on their hands One army pro
poses 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 unlucl1y 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;
50 that that which opened in inno-
cent fun ended in the massacre of all
the twenty-four sportsmen. Was there
ever better illustration of what was
true then. and is true now, that that
which is innocent may be made de-
structive? What of worldly nature is
more important and Strengthening and
innocent than amusement, and yet what
has counted more victims? / have no
sympathy with straight-jacl1et reli-
gion. This is a very brief world to me,
and propose to do all can to make it
bright for others.
1 never could keep step to dead
march. book years ago issued 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 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. be-
heve the church of God has made tre-
mendous 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 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 condemna-
ton and fire away indiscriminately
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 fig-
ure we sometimes think 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 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 garland.
And l 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
women will agree with me in the state
ment that one of the worst plaques of
these cities is currupt 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
Sodomic pictures on board fences, and
in many of the show windows, there is
not much lower depth of pro1igacy
to reach. At Naples, Italy, they keep
such pictures locked up from indis-
criminate inspection. Those pictures
were exhumed from Pompeii and are
not fit for public gaze. If the effront-
cry 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.
To help stay the plague now raging,
/ project certain principles by which
you mary Judge in regard to any amuse-
ment or recreation, finding out for
ynu1 self whether it is rigEt or whether
it is wrong.
Ilemark, in the first place, that you
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 multiplica-
ton tables and statistics. If you show
them an exquisite picture. they will be-
gin to discuss the pigments involved 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 bil-
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 an
them, 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 il Is these exhilarant and sym
pathetic and warm hearted people that
are most tempted to pernicious amuse-
ments. In proportion as ship is swift
1t wants a strong helmsman; in proper
ton as horse is gay, it wants stout
driver; and these people of exuberant
nature viii do well to look at the reac-
ton of all their amusem cnts. If an