The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-07-28

so into amusemerts that they can
not afford, they first borrow wha:
they can not earn. and then they
steal what they can not borrow.
First they go into embarrassment
and then into theft, and when a man
gets as far as that he does not stop
short of the penitentiary. There is
not a prison in the land where there
are not victims of unsanctified amuse-
ments. How often have had parents
come to Inc 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 disarrange-
ment of the accounts! Why, he had
salary enough to pay all lawful ex-
penditure, but not enough salary to
meet his sinful amusements. And
again and again | have gone and inn
plOred for the young man-sometimes,
alas, the petition unavaiing.
You may judge of amusements by
their effect upon physical health. The
need of many good people is physical
recuperation. There are Chritiam men
who write hard things against their
immortal souls when there is not hing
the matter with them but an incom-
petent liver. There are Christian peo-
pie who seem to think that it is a good
| sign to be poorly, and because Richard
Baxter and Robert Hall were invalids
| they think that by the same sick ness
| they may come to the same grandeur
| of I to {.,'1 lot
deople that God will hold you re-
sponsible for your invalidis.n if it is
your own fault, and when 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
animal diet Of which the Indian par
takes, and in a little while his blood
will change it's chemical proportions
1t will become like unto the blood oi
the lion, or the tiger, or the bear, while
his disposition will change and be-
come fierce, cruel and unrelenting.
The body has 4 powerful effect upon
the soul. There are people whose
ideas of Heaven are all shut out with
clouds of tobacco 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 Mag
niticent machinery capable of propell-
ing great Etruria across the Allan
tic, yet fastened in a rickety North
River propeller. Physical develop
ment which merely shows itself in a
fabulous lifting, or in perileus rope
walking, or in pugilistic encounter,
excites only our contempt, but we con-
fess to great admiration for the man
who has great soul in an athletic
body, every nerve, muscle and bone of
which is consecrated to right uses
Oh, it seems to me outrageous
that men through neglect should
allow their physical health to go
down beyond repair, spending the rest
of their life not in some great enter
prise for God and the world, but in
studying what is the best thing to take
for dyspepsia. A ship which ought,
with all sails set and every man at his
post, to be carrying a rich cargo for
; eternity, employing all its means in
} stopping up leakagcs! When you may,
through some of the popular and
J hcalthful recreation of our time, work
off your spleen and your queruIousness
and One-half of your physical and
mental ailments, do not turn your back
} from such a grand medicamcnt.
Again, judge of tn. places Of amuse-
ment by the companionship into which
they put you. If you belong to an Or
, ganization where you have to associate
with the Incorporate, with the IN
Z clean, with the abandoned, howevcl
G we'll they may be dressed in the nan'
e of God quit it. They will despoil You
f nature. They will undermine you
t moral character. They will drop yo,
e when you are destroyed. They will
: not give one cent to support your chil
# dren when you are dead. They viii
S weep not one tear at your burial
e They will chuckle over your damna
It ton. But the day comes when til
l. men who have exerted evil inhuenc
s. upon their fellows will b. brought t.
It Judgment Scene: The last day stage
l. The rocking earth. Enter dukes, lords
IS kings, beggars, clowns. No swore
y No tinsel No crown. For footlights
% the kindling flames of world. Fo
e orchestra. the trumpets that wake til
) dead. For gallery. the clouds file
with angel spectators. For applaus'
e the clapping floods of the sea. ft
E. curtains, the heavens rolled togethe
n | as n scroll For trapedy the doom {
is the destroyed. For farce, the effort
IF serve the world and God at the san
ID time. For the last scene OF the lift
it act, the tramp of nations across tt
e stage--some to the right others to Il
ID left.