The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-07-28
BENTON. LOUISIANA, THURSDAY, JULY %, 1885,

and say that l have no confidence in q !
man who makes religion of his
gloomy looks. That kind of Il man al
ways turns out badly. l would not
want him for the treasurer of an
orphan asylum. The orphans would
suffer.
Among 40 people whom l received
into the church at one communion,
there was only one applicant Of whose
picty l was suspicious. lie had the
longest story to tell; had seen the most
visions, and gave an experience so
wonderful that all the other applicants
were discouraged. was not surprised
the year after to learn that he had run
off with the funds of the bank with
which he was connected. Who is this
black angel that you call religion
wings black. feet black, feathers black?
Our religion is bright angel
feet bright, eyes bright. wings
bright, taking her place in the soul.
She pulls a rope that reaches to the
skies and sets all the bells of Heaven
a-chiming. There are some persons
who, when talking to Il minister, al
ways feel it polite to look lugubrious.
Go forth, oh people, to your lawful
amusement. God meansyou to be hap
py. But, when there are so many
sources of innocent pleasure. why tam
per with anything that is dangerous
and polluting? Why stop our ears to
| Heaven full of songsters to listen to
| the hiss of !; dragon? Why turn back
from the mountain-sidc all abloom
with wild flowers and adash with the
nimble torrents, and with blistered
| feet attempt to climb the hot sides of
Cotopaxi?
Now. all opera houses, theaters.
bowling alleys, skating rinl1s and all
styles of amusement, good and bad, l
put on trial to-day and judge of them
by certain cardinal principles. First,
you may judge of any amusement by
its healthful result or by it's baneful
reaction. There are people who seem
made up of hard faces. They are Il
combination of multiplication tables
and statistics. If you show them an
exquisite picture they will begin to
coloring: if You show them a beautiful
rose, they Will submit 1t to botanical
analysis. which is only the post mortem
examination of flower. They never
do anything more than feebly smile.
There are no great tides of feeling
surging up from the depth of their
soul in billow after billow of reverber-
ating laughter. They seem as if ma
ture had built them by contract and
made a bunyling job out of it. But,
blessed be to God, there are people in
the world who have bright faces and
whose life is a song, an anthem, a
paean of victory. Even their troubles
are like the vines that crawl up the
side of Il great tower on the top OF
which the sunlight sits and the soft
airs of the summer hold perpetual
carnival. They are the people you
like to come to your house; they are
the people | like to have come to my
house. Now it is these exhilarant
and sympathetic and warm-hearted
people that are most tempted tC
!, pernicious amusements In proportion
as ship is swift it wants a strong
helms,nan; in proportion as horse is
gay it wants a strong driver: and these
!, people of exuberant nature will dc
well to look at the reaction of all theil
. amusements. If an amusement send:
: YOU home at night nervous so you cal
not sleep and you rise in the morning
not because you are slept out
bat because your duty drag:
= you from your slumbers, yo'
have been where you ought no
to have been. There are amuse
ments that send man next day t.
!. his work blooashot, yawning, stupid
nauseated, and they are wron
:, kinds of amusements. Their
are entertainments that Civ
:, n man disgust with the drudgery G
y life, with tools because they are nc
;. swords, with working aprons becaus
:, they are not robes, with cattle bt
>. cause they are not infuriated bulls {
, the arena. If any amusement send
. you home longing for life of romano
;, and thrilling adventure, love ths
o takes poison and shoots itself, moor
light adventures and hairbreadth G.
:. capes, you may depend upon it ths
= you are the sacrificed victim of III
4 sanctified pleasure. Oar recreation
are intended to build us up, and it the
\ pull us down as to our moral or as
4 Our physical strength, you may CON
:. to the conc usion that they are ol
!" noxious.
le Still further: Those amusements al
t. wrong which lead into expenditure b
II yond your means. Money spent
le recreation is not thrown away. 1t
>, all folly for us to come from a place
D amusement feeling that we have waste
n our money and time You may by
l. have made an investment worth mo
0. than the transaction which yield'
l. you hundred Or thousand dollar
But how many properties have be'
n riddled by costly amusements? II
n. table has been robbed to pay the ci'
SIS The champagne has cheated t
er chidren's wardrobe. The carousi1
10 party has burned up the boys prime
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