Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1891-04-02

time. You may by 1T have made an in
vestment worth more than the transaction
that yielded you hundreds aud thousands Of
dollars. but how many proprietors have
been riddled by costly amusements.
When men 60 into amusements that they
can not afford, they first borrow what they
cannot earn. and then they steal what they
cannot borrow. First they 60 into emhar-
rassment, and then into lying. and than
into theft and when q man gets as far ON
as that he does not stop short of the peni-
tertiary. There is not q prison in the land
where there are not victims of unsanctifed
smusements.
I go further, and say those are unchris-
tian amusements which become the chief
business of mans life. Life is an earnest
thing. Whether we were born in palace
or howell; whether we are aff1uent or
pinched, we have to work. If you do not
sweat with toll, you win sweat with dis
case. You lave q soul that is to be trans
figured amidst the pomp Of Judgment
day; and after the sea has sung its last
chant, and the mountain shall have come
down in an avalanche of rock, you will live
and think and oct, high ON a throne where
seraphs sing, or deep In dungeon where
demons howl In world where there is
so much to do for yourselves, and so much
to do for others, Ged pity that man who
has nothing to do.
Your sports are merely means to an end.
They are alleviations and helps. The arm
Of toll is the only arm strong enough TO
bring up the bucket out of the deep well
of pleasure. Amusement is only the bower
where business and philanthropy rest
while on their way to stirring achieve
ments. ADJUSTMENTS are merely the vines
that grow about the anvil Of toll anu the
poisoning of the hammers. Alas for the
man who spends his life in laborously
doing nothing, his days in hunting up
lounging- places and lCungers, his nights in
seeking out some gas-lighted foolery! The
man who always has on his sporting
jacket, ready to hunt for game in tho
mountain or fish in the brook, with no time
to pray, or work, or read, is not as well off
as the greyhound that runs by his side, or
the fly bait with which he whips the
stream.
A man who does not work does not know
how to play. II God had intended us to
do nothing but laugh, he would not have
given US shoulders with which to lift, and
hands with which to work. and brains
with which to think. The amusements Of
life are merely the orchestra playing while
the great tragedy of life plunges through
its i've acts-infancy, childhood, manhood,
old age, and death. Then exit the las.
| earthly opportunity. Enter the over,
whelming realities of an eternal world
go further, and say that all those
| amusements are wrong which lead int
bad company. If you 60 to any place
where you have to associate with the
incorporate, with the unclean, with the
abandoned, however well they may b
dressed, in the name Of God quit it. TheS,
will despoil your nature. They will under.
| mine your moral character. They will
drop you when you are destroyed. They
will not give one cent to support your
children when you are dead. They will
weep not ono tear at your burial. They
will chuckle over your damnation.
| Again: Any amusement that gives yoV
distaste for domestic life is bad. How
| many bright domestic circles have been
broken up by sinful amusements The
father went of, the mother went off. the
| child went off. There are today the frag.
! ments before me Of blasted households. Oh,
If you have wandered away. would like to
charm you back by the sound of that one
| word "home." Do yea know that you
have but little more time to give 20 domes-
tic welfare? Do you not see, father, that
| your children are soon to so out into the
world, and all the influence fer good you
y
| Death will break in on your coniugal reta-
| lions, and alas, il you have to stand ovsr
| the grave of one who persisted from your
| neglect!
I saw Q Maynard husband standing a
| the death bed OF his Christian wife, and I
| saw her point to ring on her finger, and
heard her say to her husband. ''Do you sec
that ring?" He replied, .'Yes see it,"
"Wen," she said, ''do you remember who
put it there?" ''Yes," said he, II put it
there" and all the past seemed to rush
upon him. BY tho memory of that day
when, in the presence of men and angels,
you promised to be faithful in Joy and sor-
row, and in sickness and in health; by the
memory Of those pleasant hours when you
sat together in your new home talking OF
bright future; by the cradle and the joyful
hour when one life was spared and another
given; by that sick bed, when the little ono
lifted up tho hands and called for help and
you knew he must die, and he put one arm
around each Of your necks and brought you
very near together in that dying kiss; by
the little grave In Greenwood that you
never think of without rush Of tears; by
tao family Bible, where, amidst stories OF
heavenly love, 10 the brief but expressive
record Of births and deaths; by the neglects
Of tho past, and by the agcnics OF tina
future; BY a judgment-dsy, when husbands
aud wives, parents and children, in immor'
tai groups, will stand to he caught up IN
shining array, or to shrink down into dark
ness; BY al that, beg you to give to home
your beat affections.
All my friends, there Is an hour coming
when oMr past life will probably pass
before W in review. It will be our last
hour. II from our death. pillow we have
to look back and SEQ Q life spent in sinful
amusement, there will be dart that will
strike through our soul sharper than the
dagger with which virginius slew his
child. The memory Of the past viii make
rs quake like Macbeth. The iniquitiea
and Rating through which we have passed
will come upon us, weird and skeleton o.
Meg Merrillies. Death, tho old Shylock,
will demand, and take, the remaining
pound Of flesh, and the remaining drop Of