Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-03-20

! vestment worth more than the transaction
that yielded you hundreds aud thousands X
dollars, but how many proprletors have
been rddled by costly amusements.
When men go into amusements that they
can not afford, they first borrow what they
cannot earn. and then they steal what they
cannot borrow. First they go into eihbar-
rassment. and then into lying, and then
into theft and when nan gets as far on
as that he does not stop short OF the peni
Tertiary. There is not prison in the land
where there are not victims OF unsanctifed
amusements.
go further, and say those are unchris-
tan amusements which become the chief
business of mans life. Life is an earnest
thing. Whether we were born in palace
or hovel; whether we are aflluent or
pinched. we have TO work. II you do not
sweat with toll, you will sweat with dis
ease. You have "A soul that is 10 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 act high on throne where
seraphs sing, or deep in a dungeon where
demons howl. In world where there is
/ so much TO do for yourselves. and so much
to do for others, God 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 10
! 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. Amusements are merely the vines
J that grow about the anvil of toll, and the
| blossoming of the hammers. Alas for the
man who spends his life in laboriously
! doing nothing, his days in hunting up
! loungng- 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 the
mountain or fish in the brook, with no time
10 pray or work, or read, is not as well of
as the greyhound that runs by his side, or
/ the fly bait with which he whips the
/ stream.
a man who docs not work does not know
how TO play. If God had intended us TO
! do nothing but laugh. he would not have
! given us shoulders with which 10 lift, and
! hands with which 10 work. and brains
with which 10 think. The amusements OF
! life are merely the orchestra playing while
! the great tragedy of life plunges through
its five ac.s-infancy, childhood, manhood
/ old age, and death. Then exit the last
earthly opportunity. Enter the over
whelming realities of an eternal world .
/ go further, and say that all those
amusements are wrong which lead into
bad company. If you 20 10 any place
where you have TO associate with the
| incorporate, with the unclean, with the
abandoned. however well they may be
dressed, in the name Of God quit il. They
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 one tear at your burial. They
will chuckle over your damnation.
Again: Any amusement that gives you
a distaste for domestic life is bad. How
many bright domestic circles have been
broken up by sinful amusements : The
father went off, 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 you know that you
have but little more time TO give to domes-
tic welfare? Do you no. see, father, that
your children are soon 10 20 out into the
world, and all the influence fer good you
are 10 have over them you must have now?
Death will break in on your conjugal rela-
tions, and alas, if YOU have TO stand over
the grave Of one who persisted from your
neglect.
| saw a hayward husband standing at
the death-hed of his Christian wife, and
saw her point 10 a ring on her finger, and
heard her say 10 her husband. "Do you see
that ring?" He replied, Eyes, | see it. y
"Well," she said, lido you remember who
put it there?" ''Yes," said he, II put il
there" and all the past seemed to rush
upon him. BY the memory Of that day
when, in the presence Of men and angels,
YOU promised 70 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 a
bright future; by the cradle and the joyful
hour when one life was spared and another
given: by that sicl1-bed. when the little one
lifted up the hands and called for help, and
you knew he must die, and he put one arm
around each OF your necks and broughtyou
very near together in that dying kiss; by
the little grave in Greenwood that you
never think Of without a rush of tears; by
the family Bible, whore, amidst stories OF
heavenly love- is the brief but expressive
!
of the past, and by the agcnies Of the
future; by a iudgment-day, 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 all that, / beg you TO give to home
your best affections.
All my friends. there is an hour coming
when our past life will probably pass
before US i'm review. II will be our last
hour II from our death. pillow we have
70 look back and see life spent in sinful
amusement, there will be a dart that will
strike through our soul sharper than the
dagger with which V.rginius slew his
child. The memory Of the past will make
US quake like Macbeth. The inIquitie:
and rioting through which we have passed
will comcNpon US. weird and skeleton "a:
Meg Merrillies. Death. the old Shylock
will demand. aud take, the remaining
pound of flesh. and the remaining drop OF
blood; and upon our last opportunity fol