St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-07-23
Tests by which the Good May be Selected
from the Bad-xyholesale Denun-
citation Of ADJUSTMENTS
= Mistake,

MIN OUT. 1OnOcr i see Tue Uliuu OlO
giant coming, led by the hand of a
child into the very midst Of the temple.
At his first appearance 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. I" 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 - oSvs
himself forward until the whole
house comes down in thunderous crash,
grinding the audience like grapes in q
winepress. And so it came to pass,
when their hearts were merry, that
they said: Call for Sampson, that he
may make sport And they called for
Samson out of the prison house; and
he made them sport. In other words,
there are amlsements that are destruc-
tive and bring down disaster and death
upon the heads of those who practice
them. While they laugh and cheer
they die. The 1900 who persisted that
day in GAIA are nothing compared
with the tens of thousands who have
been destroyed, body, mind and soul,
by bad amusements and by good amuse-
ments carried to excess
In my sermons you must have no
ticed that 1 have no sympathy with
ecclesiastical straight-jackets, or with
that wholesale denunciation Of amuse-
ments to which many are pledged. 1
believe the church of God has made a
tremendous mistake in trying to sup
press the sportfulness Of youth and
drive out from men their love of amuse-
ments. 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 a battery at the
end of the street and has it fired
of 20 that everything is cut down
that happens to stand in the range, the
good as we'll as the bad, SO there are
men in the church who plant their
batteries of condemnation and fire
away indiscriminatelv. 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 a tasseled gaiter,
and think man almost ready for the
lunatic asylum who utters q conun-
drum
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 gymnasiums
and bowling alleys, where, without any
evil surroundings, our young men may
get physical as well as spiritual i'm
provement. We are dwindling away
to a narrow-chested, weak-armed, fee
ble-voiced race, when God calls to
work in which He wants physical as
we'll as spiritual athletes. would to
God that the time might soon come
when in all our colleges and theo-
logical seminaries, as at Prince
ton, a gymnasium shall be estab-
lished. We spend seven years Of hard
study in preparation for the ministry,
and come out with bronchitis and
dyspepsia and liver complaint, and
then crawl up into the pulpit, and the
people say: Don't he look heavenly"
because he looks sickly. Let the
church of God direct. rather than at
tempt to suppress, the desire for
The best men that the
world ever knew have had their sports.
William Wilberforce trundled hoop
with his children. Martin Luther
helped dress the Christmas tree. Min
listers have pitched quoits, philanthro-
pists have gone a-skating, prime min
listers have played ball.
Our communities are filled with men
and women who have in their souls un-
measured resources for sportfulness
and frolic. Show me man who never
lights up with sportfulness and has no
sympathy with the recreatlons of 9th
ers, and l will show you a man who 10
. stumbling block to the kingdom of
God. Such men are caricatures of re-
ligion. They lead young people to
think that man is good in proper
ton 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 OF
500 such men for one bright-faced, radi-
ant Christian on whose face are the
words: Rejoice evermore" Every
by his cheerful face he
breaches so sermons. will 60 further
and say that have no confidence in q
man who makes religion of his
gloomy looks. That kind of q 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 I received
into the church at one communion,
there was only one applicant of whose
piety l was suspicious. He had the
longest story to tell; had seen the most
and gave an experience %
wonderful that all the other applicants
were discouraged. Twas 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 black2
Our religion is q bright angel
feet bright. eyes bright, wings
bright, taking her place in the soul.
She pulls rope that reaches to the
skies and sets all the bells OF Heaven
There are some persons
who. when talking to a minister, al
ways feel it polite to look lugubrious
60 forth. oh people, to your lawful
God means you to be hap
py. Bat, when there are so many
sources of innocent pleasure, why tam
per with anything that is dangerous
and polluting? Why stop our ears TO q
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 torrents, and with blistered
feet attempt to climb the hot sides of
Cotopaxi?
Now, all opera houses, theaters,
alleys. skating Kinks and all
styles Of amusement, good and bad. l
put on trial to-day and judge of them