The Yale expositor., 1898-06-24

polite to look lugubrious. Go forth,
oh people, to your lawful amusement.
God means you to be happy. But,
when there are so many sources Of in
nocent pleasure why tamper with any
thing that Is dangerous and polluting?
Why stop our ears to heaven full OF
songsters to listen to the hiss or
dragon? Why turn back from the
mountain-side all abloom with wild
flowers and adash with the nimble tor
rents. and with blistered feet attempt
to climb the hot sides of Cotopaxi?
Now, all opera houses, theaters, bowl
ing alleys, skating Kinks and all styles
of amusement, good and bad, / put on
trial today and Judge OF them by certain
Judge of any amusement by its health
full result or by it's baneful reaction.
| There are people who seem made up
OF hard facts. They are a combina-
ton of multiplication tables and sta
tistics. If you show them an exquisite
| picture they will begin to discuss the
pigments involved in the coloring; IL
Will submit II to a botanical analysis,
which is only the post norton exam
nation Of a flower. They never do
| anything more than feebly smile. There
are 10 great tides of feeling surging up
! from the depth of their soul In billow
after billow Of reverberating laughter.
They seem as IL nature had built them
by contract and made a bungling job
OF 1t. But, blessed be God, there are
people in the world who have bright
! faces and whose life is a song, an an
them, paean of victory. Even their
! troubles are like the vines that crawl
up the side of a great tower on the
top OF which the sunlight sits and the
soft airs Of summer hold perpetual car
nival. They are the people you like
to have come to your house; they are
the people / like to have come to my
house. Now 1t is these exhilarant and
! sympathetic and warm-hearted people
that are most tempted to pernicious
amusements. In proportion as a ship
is swift 1t wants strong helmsman;
in proportion as horse is gay it wants
strong driver; and these people of
exuberant nature will do we'll to look at
the reaction Of all their amusements.
! II an amusement sends you home at
night nervous so you cannot sleep, and
you rise 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 a man
| next day to his work blood-shot, yawn-
ing, stupid, nauseated. and they are
wrong kinds of amusenents. There
are entertainments that give a man dis
gust with the drudgery of life, with
tools because they are not swords, with
working aprons because they are not
robes, with cattle because they are not
! Infatuated bulls of the arena. II any
amusement sends you home longing for
life of romance and thrilling adven-
! ture, love that takes poison and shoots
itself, moonlight adventures and hair
breadth escapes. you may depend upon
| il that you are the sacrificed victim of
unsanctified pleasure. Our recreations
are intended to build us up, and IL
! they pull us down as to our moral or
as to- our physical strength, you may
come to the conclusion that they are
obnoxious.
How brightly the path of unrestrain-
ed amusement opens! The young man
SAYS: Now l am off for a good time.
Never mind economy; I'll get money
somehow. What fine road! What a
beautiful day for a ride! Crack the
whip, and over the turnpike! Come,
boys, fill high your glasses! Drink!
Long life, health, plenty of rides just
! like this" Woodworking men hear the
clatter Of the hoofs and look up and say,
"Why,I wonder where those fellows get
their money from. We have to toll and
drudge. They do nothing" To these
gay men life is a thrill and an excite
ment. They stare at other people and
| In turn are stared at. The watch-chain
! iingles. The cup foams. The cheeks
flush, the eyes flash. The midnight
hears their guffaw. They swagger.
They jostle decent men off the side
walk. They take the name of God in
vain. They parody the hymn they learn
! ed at their mOtnerS knee, ana 10 all
pictures of coming disaster they cry
out: who cares!" And to the coun-
sci of some Christian friend:
Who are you?" Passing along
the street some night you hear a shrek
in a grog-shop, the rattle of the watch
mans club, the rush of the police. What
is the matter now? Oh, this reckless
young man has been killed In grog-
shop fight. Carry him home to his
fathers house.
Let me say to ali young men, your
style of amusement will decide your
eternal destiny. One night l saw a
young man at a street corner evidently
doubling as to which direction he had
better take. He had his hat lifted high
enough so you could see he had an in
! telligent forehead. He had a stout
chest; he had a robust development.
! Splendid young man. Cultured young
man. Honored young man. Why did
he stop there while so many were go
/ mi