Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-07-21
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: pleasures of Life''-uas No Sym
pathy With the wholesale Denuncia-
ton of OriOus Work
~. n


of the Y. NJ. C. A.
TEXT: "And it came to pass, when their
hearts were merry, that they said, Call for
Samson that he may make us sport. And
they called for Samson out Of the prison.
house and he made them sport."-Judges
1925.
There were three thousand people assem-
bled in the Temple of Dagon. They had
come to make sport of eyeless Samson.
They were all ready for the entertainment.
They began to clap and pound, impatient
for the amusement to begin, and they
cried, "Fetch him out! Fetch him out!'
Yonder 1 see the blind old giant coming,
led by the hand of a child into the very
midst of the temple. At his first appear
ance there goes up a shout Of laughter and
derision. The blind old giant pretends he
is tired and wants to rest himself against
the pillars of the house, so he says to the
lad who leads him, Bring me where the
main pillars are.' The lad does So Then
the strong man puts his hands on one of
the pillars, and with the mightiest push
that mortal ever made, throws himself for
ward until the whole house comes down in
thunderous crash, grinding the audience
like grapes in wine-press. "And SO it
came to pass when their hearts were merry,
that they said, Call for Samson, that he
may make us sport. And they called for
Samson out of the prison-house; and he
made them sport" In other words there
are amusements that are destructive and
bring down disaster and death upon the
heads of those who practice them. While
they laugh and cheer, they die. The three
thousand who perished that day In GAIA
are nothing compared to the tens Of thou
sands who have been destroyed body,
mind and SOUL by bad amusements and
good amusements carried to excess.
In my sermons you must have noticed
that have no sympathy with ecclesiasti-
cal strait jackets, or with that wholesale
denunciation of amusements to which many
are pledged. l believe the Church of God
has made tremendous mistake in trying
to suppress the sportfulness of youth ana
drive out from men their love of amQse-
ment. 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
fired off, so that everything is cut down
that happens to stand in the range, the
good as well as the bad, so there are men
in the church who plant the batteries of
condemnation and fire away indiscrimin-
ately. Everything is condemned. They
talk as if they would like to have our youth
dress in blue uniform like the children of
an orphan asylum, and march down the
path of life to the tune of the Dead March
in Saul. They hate blue sash, or a rose
bud in the hair, or tasseled gaiter, and
thlnk IL man almost ready 1Or 4 luDatlC
asyium who utters Il conundrum.
Young Mems Christian Associations of
the country are doing a glorious work.
They have fine reading rooms, and all the
influences are of the best kind, and are
now adding Symnasiums and bowling al
leys, where, without any evil surroundings,
our young men may get physical rs we'll as
spiritual Improvement We are dwindling
away to u narrow-chested, weak-armed,
feeble-voioed race, when God calls us to a
work in which he wants physical as well
as spiritual athletes. l would to God that
the time might soon come when in all our
colleges and theological seminaries, as at
Princeton, gymnasium shall be estab-
lished. We spend seven years of hard
study in preparation for the ministry, and
come out with bronchitis and dyspepsia
aud liver complaint, and then crawl up into
the pulpit, and the people say, I'D oesnt he
look heayenly!' because he looks sickly.
Let the Church of God direct, rather than
attempt tc suppress, the desire for amuse-
ment. The best men that the world ever
knew have had their sports. William Will
berforce trundled hoop with his children,
Martin Luther helped dress the Christmas
tree. Ministers have pitched quoits, phil
anthropists have gone a-skating, prime
ministers have played ball.
Our communities are filed with men and
women who have in their souls unmeas-
ured resources for sportfulness and frolic
sportfulness and has no sympathy with the
recreations of others, and l will show you
man who is stumbling block to the
Kingdom of God. Such men are caricatures
of religion. They lead young people to
think that a man is good in proportion as
he groans and frowns and looks sallow, and
that the height of a mans Christian stature
is in proportion to the length of his face.
would trade off five hundred such men for
one bright-faced, radiant Christian ON
whose face are the words, "Reioice ever
more!'' Every morning by his cheerful face
he breaches fifty sermons. will go further
and say that have no confidence in a man
who makes religion of his gloomy looks.
That kind OF man always turns out badly.
would not want him for the treasurer of
an orphan asylum. The orphans would
suffer.
Among forty people whom 1 received
into the church ut one communion, there
was only one applicant of whose piety 1
was suspicious. He 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 reigion-wings
black, feet black, feathers black? Our re-
ligion is bright angel-feet bright, eyes
bright, wings bright, taking her place in
tAO Soui. Suc pullS u rope luht Ietc0oS TO
the skies and sets all the bells of heaven
a-chiming. There are some persons who,
when talking to a minister, always feel it
polite to look lugubrious. Go forth, o
people, to your lawful amusement. God
means you to be happy. But, when there
are many sources of innocent pleasure,
why tamper with anything that is danger
GUS and polluting? Why stop our ears to
heaven full of songsters to listen to the
hiss Of 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, theatres, bowling
alleys, skating rinks and all styles OF
amnsements, good and bad, put on trial
to-day and judge of them by certain car
dinal principles. First, you judge OF any
amusement by it's heathful result or by its
beneficial reaction. There are people who
seem made up of hard facts. They are
combination OF multiplication tables and
statistics. If you show them an exquisite
picture they will begin to discuss the pig
ments involved in the coloring; If you show
them beautiful rose, they will submit it
to botanical analysis, which is only the
gostmortem examination of flower.