Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1898-07-01

strength. you NAV come 20 the conclusion
that thay are obnoxious
still further; Those amusements are
wrong which lead into expenditure beyond
your means Money spent Ia recreation Is
not thrown away. IL Is all folly for us TO
come from a place Of amusement feeling
that we have wasted our money aud time.
You may hy il have made an Investment
worth more than the transaction that
welded v1u hundred or a thousand dol
lars. Bus how many properties nave been
riddlal by costly amusement The table
has been robbed to paw 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 i in debt to the wifr's faded
dress. Excursions that In a day make
tour around Il whole months wages; ladies
whose lifetime business Il is &c "gO shop
ping" have their counterpart In uneduca-
ted children, bankruptcies that shock the
money market and appall the church, and
that send drunkenness staggering across
the richly figured carpet the mansion and
dashing into the mirror. and drowning out
the carol OF music with the whOOping OF
bloatrd sons come home TO break their old
mothers heart. when men 20 into amuse-
ments that they cannot afford, they first
borrow what they cannot earn, and then
they steal what they cannot borrow. First
theft, and when a man gets as far on as
that AZ does not stop short OF the peniten-
tiarv. There is not prison In the land
where there are not victims OF uusanctitied
nmusemrnts. How often | have had par
cntS come to me and ask me to go and beg
their boy of from the consequence OF
crimes that he had committed against his
cmployer-the taking Of funds out of the
employers till, or the disarrangement of
accounts Why he had salary enough to
pay all lawful expenditure, but not enough
salary to meet his sinful Pmusements.
And again and again have gone and i'm
plorhd for the young man-sometimes,
alas the petition unavailng.
How brightly the path of unrestrained
amusement oprnsl The young man says:
Now | am off for "a good time. Never
mind economy: I'll get money somehow.
What fine road! What beautiful day
g." ri To- C~1'E the whip aNd over the
turI Ike! Conn. boys, M high your glasses!
Drink! Long life, health plenty of rides
just like this" Woodworking men hear
the chatter OF the hOOiS and look up and
say, "Why, | wonder where those fellows
get their money from. We have to toll and
drudge. They do nothing" To these gay
men life is II thrill and an excitement.
They stare at other people and in turn are
stared at. The watch-chain jingles. The
cup fOams. The cheeks flush. the eyes
fash. The midnight hears their gutraw.
They sWagger. 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 your" Passing
along the street some night you hear Il
shrek in II grOg-shOp, the rattle OF the
watchmans club, the rush Of the police.
Wba4 SO ha tf.ar NO. IL s.5s
young man has been killed in a grOg-shop
| fight. Carry him home to his fathers
| 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 ii. The prOdigal
has got home at last. Mother will 20 to
| her little garden and get the sweetest
| flowers and twist them into chaplet for
| the silent heart OF the Maynard boy and
| push back from the bloated brow the long
! locks that were once her pride. And the
| air will be rent with the fathers cry: "Oh,
| my son, my son, my poor son; would God
| had died for thee, oh. my son, my SOM
| You may Judge of amusements by their
| effect upon physical health. The need Of
many good people is physical recupera-
| ton. 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 it
| is Il good sign to be poorly, and because
! Richard Baxter and Robert Hall We're in
| valids they think by the same sickness they
may come to the same grandeur OF charac-
ter. | want to tell Christian people that
| God will hold you responsible for your in
validism il 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 Il man of mild disposition upon the an
imal diet of which the Indian partakes, and
in a 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 powerful effect upon the
| soul. There are people whose ideas OF
| Heaven are all shut ont 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 propellng the great
Etruria across the Atlantic, yet fastened in
| rlckety North River propeller. Physical
| development which merely shows itself in
II fabulous lifting or in perlous rope walk
ing. or in pugilistic 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
aud 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 lives not in some
great enterprise for God and the world,
but in studying what is the best thing to
take for dyspepsia. ship which ought
with all sails set and every man at his post
~ IA.I inc rtan
employing all its men in stopping up leak
ages. When you may through some Of the
popular and healthfu recreations Of our
time work of your spleen and your quer-
ulousnesS and one-half Of your physical
and mental ailments, do not turn back
from such grand medcament.
Again, Judge OF the places of amusement
by the cOmpanionship into which they put
you. If you belong to an organization
where you have to associate with the in.
temperate, with the unclean, with the
abandoned, however well they nav be
dressed, in the name of God quit it, They
will deSpOil your nature. They will under.
mine your moral character. They will dror
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 chucklf
over your damnation. But the day comes
when the men who have eXerted evil inau.
ence upon their fellows will be brought tc
judgment. Scene; the last day. Stage
the rocking earth, Enter dukes, lords
kings, beggars, clowns, No sword Nc
tinsel. No crown. For footlghts, tn,
kinding flames of world For orchestra
!, the trumpets that wake tho dead Fol
gallery, the clouds filed with angel spec
, tHtors. For applause, the clapping food.
, of The sea. For curtains, the leaves rolled
,, together us a scroll. Fortragedy, the doom
of the destroyed. For farce, the effort tc
: serve the world and God ut the same time
= For the last scene of the fifth act, the
:, tramp of nations across the stage-somt
y to the right, others to the left.
n Again, any amusement that gives you
"a distaste for domestic life is bad How many