Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-03-16
PLAQUES OF THE CITIES.
STRONG DISCOURSE PREACHED BY
REV. r. DE WITT TALMAGE.
BaIeful Amusements the Subject - A
Great Concourse Present-The Speak
err Specifies Amusements That Are

and Brooklyn on "The Plaques of the
/ Cities" is attracting general attention,
/ At the morning service in Brooklyn and
at the evening services held under the
auspices Of The Christian Herald, 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 to-day, which is the fourth of the
series, is on "Baleful Amusements." The
text was II Samuel, ii, IA: Let the young
men now arise and play before us"
| 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 some
/ thing 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 contestant by the hair,
and then with the sword thrusting him in
the side, so that that which opened in in
nocent 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 limo
cent may be made destructive?
What of a worldly nature is more i'm
portant and strengthening and innocent
| than amusement, and yet what has count
ed more victims? | have no sympathy with
straitjacket religion. This is very
bright world to me, and propose to do all
| can to make it bright for others.
YOUTHS sPORTIVENEss SHOULD NOT BE SUP
PRESSED.
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 in need
of recreation, puts on his slippers, and
goes into his garnet and walks lively
round the floor several times there can be
no harm in it. | believe the church of
God has made tremendous 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 tired off so that every
thing is cut down that happens to stand in
the range, the good as well as the bad, 50
there are men in the church who plant
their batteries of condemnation and fire
away Unfortunately. Everything is con-
demned. But my bible commends those
who use the world without abusing it, and
in the natural world God has done every
thing to please and amuse us. In poetic
figure we sometimes speak 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 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 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
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 a
much lower depth of pro1gacy to reach
At Naples, Italy, they keep such pictures
locked up from indisCriminate inspection
Those pictures were eXhumed from Pom
pei and are not fit for public gaze If the
etfrontery 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.
by ITS FRUITS KNOW IT.
| 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. There are people who seem
made up of hard facts. They are a COM
bination of multiplication tables and sta
tstics If you show them an exquisite
picture they will begin to discuss the pig
ments involved in the coorng. If you
show them beautiful rose they will sub
nit it to "A botanical analysis, which is only
the post-mortem 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 billow of reverberating laughter
They seem as if nature had built them by
contract and made a bungling job of it.
But, blessed be God, there are people in
the world who have bright faces, and
whose life is n song an anthem, a pecan of
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 per-
petual carnival. They are the people you
like to have come to your house; they are
the people | like to have come to my house. |
If you but touch the hem of their gar |
ments you are healed.
Now it is these eXhilarant and sympa- |
thetc and warm hearted people that are |
most tempted to perncious amusements. |
In proportion as a ship is swift it wants a |
strong nelmsman; in proportion as horse |
is gay, it wants n stout driver; and these |
people of eXuberant nature will do well to |
look ut the reaction of ali their amuse- !
ments. If an amusement sends you home |
at night nervous so that you cannot sleep, |
and You rise up in the morning, not be-
cause you are slept out, but because your t.
duty drags you from your slumbers, you .
have been where you ought not to have
been. There are amusemeuts that send
man next day to his work bloodshot, yawn-
ing, stupid, nauseated; and they are wrong
kinds cf am scmCut. 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
lrcna.
If any amusement sends you home long.
.n-. fnx a I'M. OF rnunn.ca aud thrillinn Id. !