The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-03-26
HOW FOOLS MOCK AT SIN
bR. TALMAeE's DISCOURSE ON BALE
FuL ADJUSTMENTS.

cent and Injurious GrAtihcations, Al
ways Important. Is just Now OF I'm
mense Importance.
New YORK, March 15.-The series of
sermons DIR. Talmage is preaching in
this city and Brooklyn on 1.-THE
Plaques of the Cities" Is attracting gen.
eral attention. At the morning service
in Brooklyn, and at the evening ser
vices held under the auspices of The
Christian Herald In this city, the mum.
Der of persons who come to hear the
sermons Is far larger than either of the
buildings can accommodate, The ser;
mon today, which is the fourth of the
series, is on "Baleful ADJUSTMENTS. /"
The text was ii Samuel il, 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 pro-
poses game of sword fencing Moth
ing could be more healthful and inno-
cent The other army accepts the chal-
lenge. Twelve men against twelve
men, the sport opens. But something
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 contest
ant by the hair and then with the
sword thrusting HIM IN the side, co
that that which opened in innocent
fun ended in the massacre. of all the
twenty four sportsmen. Was there
ever a better illustration of what was
true then and is true now, that that
which is innocent may be made de-
structve?
What of worldly nature is more
important and strengthening and inno-
cent than amusement, and yet what
has counted more victims2 l have no
sympathy with a straitjacket relig-
ion. This is very bright world to me,
and propose to do all l can to make it
bright for others.
NATURES HEALTHFUL ADJUSTMENTS.
never could keep step to dead
march. A 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 recrea-
ton, 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 sportfrilness OF
youth and drive out from men their
love of amusement. If God ever i'm
planted 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 bat
terry at the end of the street, and has it
fired off so that everything 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
condemned. But my Bible commends
those who use the world without abus-
ing 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 a 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
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 en-
tertainment. 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
may judge of what is going on in many
of the places of amusement by the Sod
omic pictures 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 indiscrim-
mate inspection. Those pictures were
exhumed from Pompeii, 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 l
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.
JUDGE THEM BY THEIR FRUITS.
/ remark, in the first place, that you
can judge of the moral character of
any amusement by its healthful result
or by its baleful reaction. There are
people who seem made up of hard
facts They are combination of null
| tiplication tables and statistics. If you
show them an exquisite picture they
| will begin to discuss the pigments in
| volved in the coloring. If you show
them beautiful rose they will submit
it to botanical analysis, which is only
the postmortein examination of a
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 bill
low of reverberating laughter. They
seem as if nature lad built them BY
contract and made a bungling job out
of it.
Bu,, blessed be God, there are people
in the world who have bright faces,
and whose life is song, an anthem, a
paan of victory. Even their troubles