The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-06-30
TALMAGE.S SERMON.
"PLEASURES OF LIFE" SUM-
;. DAYS SUBJECT.
From the Text Judges XVI: a5, as
Follows: And It Came to Pass When
Their Hearts Were Merry That They
Said, Call for Samson"

There were three thousand people as
sembled in the Temple Of Dagon. They
had come to make sport of eyeless Sam
son. They were all ready for the enter
talnment. They began to clap and
pound, impatient for the amusement
to begin, and they cried, Fetch him
out! Fetch him out!" Yonder I see the
blind old 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" 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 I'M
til the whole house came down in thun-
derous crash, grinding the audience
ike grapes in a Wine-press. And so
1t 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
n death upon the heads of those who
practice them. While they laugh and
cheer, they die. The three thousand
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 carried
to excess.
In my m you must have no
tlced that l have no sympathy with &C.
cleslastical strait-jackets, or with that
wholesale denunciation of amusements
to which many are pledged. I believe
the church of God has made a ire
mendous mistake in trying to suppress
the spOrtfulness of youth and drive
cut from men their love of amusement.
II 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 off, so 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 indiscrim-
lnately. 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 "Deau March in SAUL" They
hate a blue sash, or a rosebud in the
hair, or a tasseled gaiter, and think a
man almost ready for the lunatic asy-
lum who utters a 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 gymnasiums
and bowling alleys, where, without any
evil surroundings, u young men may
get physical as we'll as spiritual i'm
~provement. We are dwindling away to
a narrow-chested, weak-armed, feeble
voiced race, when God calls US to a
work in which he wants physical as
we'll as spiritual athletes. 1 would to
God that the time might soon come
when in all u colleges and theological
~seminaries, as at Princeton, a gymna-
SUM shall be established. We spend
seven years of hard study in prepara-
ton 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 sick
ly. Let the church of God direct, rath-
er than attempt to suppress the de-
sire for amusement. The best men
that the world ever knew have had
their sports. William Wilberforce
trundled hoop with his children. Mar
tin Luther helped dress the Christmas
tree. Ministers have pitched quoits,
philanthropists have gone a-skating,
prime ministers have played ball.
Our communities are filled with men
and ONE who have in their souls
unmeasured for sportfulness
and froilc. Show me a man who never
lights up with sportfulness and has no
sympathy with the recreations of
others, and I will show you a man
who is a stumbling block to the king
dom of God. Such men arc caricatures
Of religion. They lead young people to
think that a man is good in proper
ton 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. I would trade off
five hundred such men for one bright
faced, radiant Christian on whose face
are the words, "Rejoice evermore!"
Every morning by his cheerful face he
breaches fifty NJ 1 will go fur
ther and say that I have no confidence
in a man who makes a religion of his
gloomy looks. That kind of a man al
ways turns out badly. I would not
want him for the treasurer of an or
phan asylum. The orphans would suf-
fer.
Amo0o f0rtv poOD1o whom T rocoivod