Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-03-19
BALEFUL ADJUSTMENTS.
Or. TALMAGE TALKS ABOUT THE
PLEASURES THAT DESTROY.

A Solemn Warning Against Vice in
an Enticing Form. - How to Dis.
eliminate Between Good and Bad
Amusements.
New York, March 15.-The series OF
sermons DR.. 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 Amusemcnts. The
text was 2 Samuel 2 IA: LET the young
men now arise and play before u.s.
There arc two armies encampcd by the
pool of Gideon. The time hangs heavily
on their hands. One army proposes a
game of sword fencing. Nothing could be
more hcalthful and innocent. The other
army accepts the challenge. Twelve men
against twelve men, the sport opens. But
something went adversely. Perhaps one
of the swOIdsmen 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, 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 twentyfour 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? j have no sympathy with
"A straightforward religion. This is q very
bright world to me, and l propose to do
all | can to make it bright for others.
never could keep step to dead-march.
A book years ago issued says that Chris
tlan man has right to some amusemcnts;
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. | 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 anuse-
meut. If God ever implanted anything in
us, be implanted this desire. But instead
of providing for this demand of our nature,
the Church of God has, for the main part.
ignored IL. AS in 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
condemnation, and fire away indisCrimi-
nately. Everything is condemned. But
my Bible commcnds those who use the
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 a 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 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 ono of
the worst plaques of these cities is corrupt
under the blasting influence never to ri Sc
| If we may Judge of what is going on in
many of the places of amusement by the
| Sodomic pleasures on board fences, and in
many of the show windows, there is not
much lower depth of profigacy to reach.
At Naples, Italy, they keep such pictures
| locked up from indiscrmiuato inspection.
| Those pictures were eXhumcd from Pom
| pei, and are not fit for public gaze. If the
effrontcry 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, i
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 you can
| Judge of the moral character of any amuse-
ment by its healthful result, or by its bale
| full reaction.
If an amusement sends you home at
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 a 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 a 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 depraving than
attendance upon amusements that are full
of inuuendo 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
of his nat earlier, and pulls his coat-collar
down. The blush that first came into his
check when anything indecent was enacted
comes no more to his cheek. Farewell,
young man! You have probably started
On the long road which ends in consummate
destruction. The stars of hope will go out
one by one, until you will be left in utter
darkness. Hear you not the rush Of the
maelstrom, in whose outer circle your boat
now dances, making merry with the whirl.
ing waters? But you are being drawn in,
and the gentle motion will become terrific
agitation. You cry for help. In vain
You pull at the oar to put back, but the
struggle will not avail! You will be tossed
aud dashed and shipwrecked, and swallow
ed in the whirlpool that has already crush
ed in its wrath ten thousand hulks.
Still further; those amusements arc
wrong which lead you into expenditure be
yond your means. Money spent in recrea
ton is not thrown away. II is all folly fol
20. IL. 80