Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-03-20
BALEFUL ADJUSTMENTS.
DIR. TALMAGE TALKS ABOUT THE
PLEASURES THAT DESTROY.

an Enticing Form. - How TO Dis
Amusements.
New York, March 15.-The series of
sermons DIR. Talmage is preaching in this
city and Brooklyn, on '"rhe Plaques Of the
Cities" is attracting general attention.
At the morning service in Brooklyn, and
at the evening service held in this city,
the number of persons who come to hear
the sermons is far larger than either of
the buildings can accommodate. The
sermon today, which is the fourth of the
series, is on ''Baleful Amusements." The
text was 2 Samuel IA: "Let the young
men now arise and play before U.s."
There are two armies encamped by the
pool of Gideon. The time hangs heavily
on their hands. One army proposes
game of sword fencing. Nothing could be
more healthful and innocent. 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 unluclxy 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, and then with the sword
thrusting him in the side; so that that
which opened in innocent 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 destructive?
What of a worldly nature is more
important and strengthening and innocent
than amusement, and yet what has counted
more victims? l have no sympathy with
a straight-jacket religion. This is very
bright world to me, and 1 propose to do
all l can TO make it bright for others.
never could keep step to a dead-march.
A book years ago issued says that a Chris
tian 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 garnet, and walks lively around the
| floor several times, there can be no harm
in it. l believe the Church of God has
made a tremendous mistake in trying to
suppress the sportfulness of youth, and
drive out from men their love of amuse-
ment. If God over 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 riot, the mayor plants
a 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 m
the Church who plant their batteries of
condemnation, and fire away indiscrimi-
nately. Everything is condemned. But
| a. N1,.,
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 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 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 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.
IL 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 prohigacy TO reach.
AT Naples, Italy, they keep such pictures
locked up from indiscriminato 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
Pompeii, but Sodom.
To help stay the plague now raging,
project certain principles by which you
may Judge in regard to any amusement or
recreation, finding out for yourself whether
it is right or whether it is wrong.
remark, in the first place, that yon can
Judge Of the moral character of any amuse-
ment by its healthful result, or by its bale
full reaction.
II an amusement sends you home ct
night nervous so that you cannot sleep, and
you rise up in the morning, not because
you are slept out, but because your duty
drags you from your slumbers, you have
been where you ought not to have been.
There are amusements that send man
| next day to his work bloodshot, yawning,
stupid, nauseated; and they are wrong
kinds of amusement. They are entertain
ments that give man disgust with the
drudgery of life, with tools because they
are not swords, with working aprons be-
cause they are not robes. with cattle be-
cause they are not Infatuated bulls Of the
arena. If any amusement sends you
home longing for life of romance and
thrilling adventure, 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 unsanctifed pleasure. Our recreations
are intended to build US up; and If they
| pull us down as to our moral or as to our
physical strength, you may come to the
conclusion that they are obnoxious.
There is nothing more depraviug than
attendance upon amusements that are full
of innuendo and low suggestion. The
young man enters. At first he sits far
back with his hat on and his coat collar
up, fearful that somebody there may know
him. Several nights pass on. He takes
off his hat earlier, and pulls his coat-collar
down. The blush that first came into his