Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-07-13

drudgery of life, with tools because they
are not swords, with working aprons be
cause they are not robes, with cattle because
| they are not infuriated bulls Of the arena
II any amusement sends you home longing
! Tor life OF romance and thrilling adven
| ture, love that takes poison and shoots It.
self, moonlight adventures and hair
breadths escapes, you may depend upon l,
that you are the sacrificed victim Of un'
sanctitied 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.
Still further: Those amusements are
wrong which lead into expenditure beyond
your means. Money spent in recreation Is
1 not thrown away. 1t is all folly for us tc
/ come from a place of amusement feeling
! that We have wasted our money and time
You may by it have made an investment
worth more than the transaction that
! yielded you hundred or a thousand dol.
! lars. But how many properties have beer
/ riddled by costly amusement? The table
, has been robbed to pay the club. The
champagne has cheated the children's
/ wardrobe. The carousing party has burned
up the boys primer. The table cloth OF the
corner saloon is in debt to the wife's faded
dress. Excursions that in a day make a
tour around a whole months wages; ladies
whose lifetime business 1t Is tc 'go shop
ping" have their counterpart In uneduca-
ted children, bankruptcies that shock the
money market and appali the church, and
that send drunkenness staggering across
the richly figured carpet of the mansion and
dashing into the mirror, and drowning out
the carol of music with the whooping oi
bloated sons come home to break their old
mothers heart. when men go into amuse-
ments that they cannot afford, they first
4 borrow what they cannot earn, and then
they steal what they cannot borrow. Fir-t
thew into ~ m rraS and int n
theft. and when a man gets rs far on as
that he does not stop short of the peniten-
tiary. There Is not n prison in the land
where there are not victims of uhsanctiiled
amusements. How often l have had par
ents come to me and ask me to go and beg
their boy off from the consequence OF
crimes that he had committed against his
employer-the taking of funds out of the
employers till, or the disarrangement of
accountsl Why, he had salary enough to
pay all lawful expenditure, but not enough
salary to meet his sinful amusements.
And again and again 1 have gone and i'm
plored for the young man-sometimes,
alas! the petition unavailing.
How brightly the path of unrestrained
amusement opens! The young man says:
Now 1 am of for good time. Never
mind economy; I'll get money somehow.
What fine roadl What beautiful day
for ridel Crack the whip and over the
turnpikei Come, boys, fill high your glasses!
Drink Long life, health, plenty of rides
just like thisi'' Hard working men hear
the clatter of the hoofS and look up and
say, why, 1 wonder where those fellows
get their money from. We have to toll and
drudge. They do nothing" To these gay
men life is thrill and an excitement.
They stare at other people and in turn are
stared at. The watch-chain jingles. The
cup foams. The cheeks flusn, the eyes
flash. The midnight hears their guffaw.
They swasger. They jostle decent men of
the sidewalk. They take the name of God
in vain. They parody the hymn they
learned at their mothers knee; and to all
pictures of coming disaster they cry out:
"WhO cares!" and to the counsel of some
Christian friend, ''Who are you?'' Passing
along the street some night you hear a
shrek in u grog-shop, the rattle Of the
watchnan's club, the rush of the police.
What Is the matter now? oh, this reckless
young man has been killed in a grog shop
fight. Carry him home to his father s
house. Parents will come down and wash
his wounds and close his eyes in death.
They forgive him all he did, though he
cannot in his silence ask it, The prodignl
has got home at last. Mother will go TO
her little garden and get the sweetest
flowers and twist them into II chaplet for
the silent heart of the wayward boy and
push back from the bloated brow the long
locks that We're once her pride. And the
air will be rent with the fathers cry: "Oh,
my son, my son, my poor son; would God
l had died for thee, oh, my son, my soni'
You may Judge OF amusements by their
effect upon physical health. The need OF
many good people Is physical recupera-
tion. There are Christian men who write
hards things against their immortal souls
when there Is nothing the matter with
them except an incompetent liver. There
are Christian people who seem to think 1t
Is good sign to be poorly, and because
Richard Baxter and Robert Hall were in
valids they think by the same sickness they
may come to the same grandeur of charac-
ter. l want to tell Christian people that
God will hold you responsible for your in
through right exercise and prudence you
might be athletic and well. The effect of
the body upon the soul you acknowledge.
Put man of mild disposition upon the an
fmal diet of which the Indian partakes, and
In little while his blood will change its
chemical proportions. 1t will become like
unto the blood Of the lion or the tiger or
the bear, while his disposition will change
and become fierce, cruel and unrelenting.
The body has a powerful effect upon the
soul. There are people whose ideas of
Heaven are all shut out with clouds of to-
bacco smoke. There are people who dare
to shatter the physical vase in which God
put the jewel Of eternity. There are men
with great hearts and intellects In bodies
worn out by their own neglects. Magnificent
machinery capable of propelling the great
Etruria across the Atlantic, yet fastened In
a rckety North River propeller. Physical
development which merely shows itself in
fabulous lifting, or in perilOus rope walk
ing, or In puSilistic encounter eXcites only
our contempt, but we confess to great
admiration for man who has a great soul
In an athletic body, every nerve, muscle
and bone of which is consecrated to right
uses. Oh, 1t seems to me outrageous that
men through neglect should allow their
physical health to go down beyond repair,
spending the rest of their lives not in some
great enterprise for God and the world
but in studying what il the best thing to
take for dyspepsia. ship which ought
with all sails set and every man at his post
to be carrying rich cargo for eternity
employing all its men in stopping up leak
ages! When you may through some of the
popular and healthful recreations of our
time work off your spleen and your quer-
ulousness and One-half of your physical
and mental ailments, do not turn back
from such grand medicament.
Again, judge Of the places of amusement
by the companionship into which they put
you. II you belong to an organization
where you have to associate with the in
temperate, with the unclean, with the
abandoned, however well they may be
dressed, in the name of God quit it. 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. But the day comes
when the men who have exerted evil innu-
ence upon their fellows will be brought to
judgment. Scene: the last day. Stage:
the rocking earth. Enter dukes, lords,
kings, beggars, clowns. No sword. No
tinsel. No crown. For footlights, the
kindling flames of a world. For orchestra
the trumpets that wake the dead. For
gallery. the clouds filed with angel spec
tators. For applause, the clapping foods
OF the sea. For curtains. the leaves relief
together as n scroll. For tragedy, the doom
OF the DESTROYED For farce. the effort to
serve the world and G cd Mt the same time.
For the last scene of the fifth act, the
tramp of nations across the stage-some
to the right, others to the left
Again, any amusement that gives you a
! LII l. L. l. 4 IL