The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-06-22
RFULN ESS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Enters Strong
Plea in It's Favor.
Down Some Good Rules for the Selec-
tiOn of Pastimes and Amusements
-LOng-faced Christians Are
e Often Spurious.

In the following discourse DR.. 1al-
mage places himself on record as in
favor of lawful amusements and eX-
tracts a good lesson from the story of
Samson. The text is Judges IS: 25:
And 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"
There were 5000 people assembled in
the temple of Dagon. They had come
to make sport of eyeless Samson. They
were all ready for the entertainment.
\ They began to clap and pound, impa-
tient for the amusement to begin, and
they cried out, Fetch him out! Fetch
him out!" Yonder | see the blind old
giant coming, led by the hand of
child in to the very midst of the tenn
pie. AT his first appearance there goes
up shout of daughters and derision. The
blind old giant pretends he is tired
and wants to rest himself against the
pillars of the house, 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
ous 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
And 60 Co
of the prison house, and he made them
sport" In order words there are
amusements that are destructive and
bring down disaster and death upon
the heads of those who practise them.
While they laugh and cheer they die.
The three thousand who perished 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
amusements carried to excess.
In my sermons you must have no.
ticed that I have no sympathy with
ecclesiastical strait-jackets, or with
that wholesale denunciation of amuse-
ments to which many are pledged. l
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. If 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 bat
taT Oh ha of 4ha ,tr hnc
1t fired off, so that everybody is cut
down that happens to stand in the
range, the good as well as the bad, SC
there are men in the church who plant
their batteries of condemnation and
fire away indiscriminately. Everything
is condemned. They talk as if they
would like to have our youth dress in
blue uniform, like the children of ar
orphan asylum, and march down the
path of life to the tune of the Dead
March in Saul. They hate blue
sash, or rosebud in the hair, or 6
tasseled gaiter, and think a man al
most ready for the lunatic asylum who
utters a conundrum.
Young Mems Christian associations
of the country are doing gloriou;
work. They have fine reading rooms
and all the influences are of the bes
kind, and are now adding gymnasium!
and bowling alleys, where, without
any evil surroundings, our young mel
may get physical as well as spiritua
improvement. We are dwindling away
to narrow-chested weak-armed, fee
ble-voiced race, when God calls us tt
work in which he wants physical al
well as spiritual athletes. | would tt
God that the time might soon come
when in all our colleges and theologi
cal seminaries, as at Princeton, gym
nasium shall be established We spenC
seven years of hard study in prepara
ton for the ministry, and come ou
with bronchitis and dyspepsia ant
liver complaint, and then crawl up int,
the pulpit, and the people say, "Don'
he look heavenly" because he look
sickly. Let the church of God direct
rather than attempt to suppress, tn
desire for amusement. The best mel
their sports. William Wherefore
trundled hoop with his children. Mar
tin Luther helped dress the Christina
tree. Ministers have pitched quoits
philanthropists have gone a-skating
prime ministers have played ball.
Our communities are filled with me-
and women who have in their souls un
measured resources for sportfulnes
and frolic. Show me man who neve
lights up with sportfulness and has n
sympathy with the recreations of otf
II ch
is stumbling block to the kingdo1
of God. Such men are caricatures @
religion. They lead young men t
think that man is good in propol
ton as he groans and frowns an
looks sallow, and that the height of
mans Christian stature is in propol
ton to the length of his face. / woul
trade off 500 such men for one brigh'
faced, radiant Christian on whose fac
are the words, "Reioice evermore!
Every morning by his cheerful fac
he breaches fifty sermons. l will p
further and say that l have no conf
dence in a man who makes religio
of his gloomy looks. That kind of
man always turns out badly. l woul
not want him for the treasurer of a
orphan asylum. The orphans woul
suffer.
Among 40 people whom l receive
into the church at one communion
there was only one applicant of who's
piety l was suspicious. He had tn
longest story to tell; had seen til
most visions, and gave an experienC
so wonderful that all the other appl
cants were discouraged. l was M
surprised the nextyear to learn that /
had run off with the funds of the han