The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-06-24


EHt1k AM Mhand Of a child into
nlH'"'Ss< 1@LHiHth very midst of
REV. TALMAeE' the temple. AT his
first appearance there goes up shout
of laughter and derision. The blind
old giant pretends he is tired and
wants to rest himself against the pill
lars 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 forward until the
whole house comes down in thunder
GUS crash, grinding the audience like
grapes in a 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 5000
who persisted that day in GAIA are
nothing compared with the tens of
thousands who have been DESTROYED,
body, mind and soul, by bad amuse-
ments and by good amusements car
ried to excess.
In my sermons you must have no.
ticed that / have no sympathy with
ecclesiastical strait-jackets, or with
that wholesale denunciation of amuse-
ments of which many are pledged. |
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
amusement IL God ever implanted
anything in us, He implanted this de-
sire. 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 il fred 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
their batteries of condemnation and
fire away indiscriminately. Every
thing is condemned. They talk as il
they would like to have our youth
dress in blue uniform, like the chill
dren of an orphan asylum and march
down the path of life to the tune of
the Dead March in Saul. They hate a
blue sash, or a rosebu in the hair, or
tasseled gaiter, and think a man al
most ready for the lunatic asylum who
utters a conundrum.
Manio
of the country are doing 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 You ng men
may get physical as we'll as spiritual
Improvement We are dwindlinp
away TO a narrow-chested, wealS-armed.
feeble-voiced race, when God calls us
TO n work in which lie wants physical
| as well as spiritual athletes / would
to God that the time might soon come
when in all our colleges and theolog-
zeal seminaries, as at Princeton, a
gymnasium shall he established. We
spend seven years of hard study in
the preparation for the ministry, and
come out with bronchitis and dyspep-
STA and liver complaint, and then crawl
up into the pulpit and the people say:
Don't he look heavenlyW because he
looks sickly. Let the church of God
direct, rather than attempt to sup
press, the desire for amusement. The
best men that the world ever knew
have had their sports. William Will
berforce trundled hoop with his chill
dren. Martin Luther helped dress the
Christmas tree. Ministers have pitched
quoits, philanthropists have gone
a-skating, prime ministers have played
ball.
Our communities are filed with men
and women who have in their souls
unmeasured resources for sportfulness
and frolic. Show me a man who never
lights up with 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 man is good in proportion
as he groans and frowns and looks
sallow, and that the height of mans
Christian stature is in proportion to the
length of his face. / would trade off
800 such men for one bright-faced,
radiant Christian on whose face are
the words Rejoice evermorew Every
morning by mis- cheerful face he
breaches 80 sermons will go further
and say that l have no confidence in a
man who man makes a 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.