The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-06-20
1903

~ uSnS be3 NotD ~ yVu c0ouos 4koop, aRx
yop rise 10 the morning NOS because you
are slept opt, hut, bacauss your duty drags
you from your sluuabers you have bssn.
where you ought not TO have been. There
arc amusements that send . man next day
10 his work bloodshot, yawning, stupid,
nauseated, and they arc wrong kinds Of
amusements There are entertainments
that give q man disgust with the drudgery
of life, with tools because they are not
swords, with working aprons because they
are not robes, with cattle because they are
not infuriated bulls Of the arena. II any
amusement sends you home longing for o
life Of romance and thrilling adventure,
love that takes poison and shoots itself,
moonlight adventures and hairbreadth
escapes, you may depend upon 1t that you
are the sacrificed victim Of unsanctifled
pleasure. Our recreations are intended to
build us up, and IL they pull us down as
to our moral or as to our physical strength
you may come to the conclusion that they
are obnoxious.
Danger Of Unrestrained Amusement.
Still further, those amusements ore
wrong which lead into expenditure be-
yond your means. Money spent In recrea-
ton Is not thrown away. It Is all folly
for US to come from place of amusement
feeling that we have wasted our money
and time. You may by 1t have made an
Investment worth more than the transac-
ton that yielded you 500 or $1,000 But
how many properties have been riddled by
costly amusementsP The table has been
robbed to pay the club. The champagne
has cheated the children's wardrobe. The
parpnsinn hoa h,rpaA Nrn tho hpxyja
primer. The tablecloth of tho corner sa-
loon is in debt to the wife's faded dress.
Excursions that in a day make tour
around a whole months wages, ladies
whose lifetime business 1t is to Ego shop
ping" have their counterpart in unedu-
Gated children, bankruptcies that shock
the money market and appall the church
and that send drunkenness staggering
across the richly figured carpet Of the
mansion and dashing into the mirror, and
drowning out the carol Of music with the
whooping Of bloated sons come home to
break their old mother heart. When men
60 into amusements that they cannot
afford, they first borrow what they cannot
earn, and then they steal what they CAN
not borrow. First they 60 into embarrass-
ment and then into theft, and when q
man gets as far on rs that he does not stop
short Of the penitentiary. There is not a
prison in the land where there are not VIC
tins Of unsanctided amusements. How
often have had parents come to me and
ask me to go and beg their boy off from
the consequence Of crimes that he had COM
mitted against his employer-the taking
of funds out Of the employers till, or the
disarrangement Of the accounts Why, he
had salary enough to pay all lawful ex-
penditure, but not enough salary to meet
his sinful amusements And again and
again have gone and implored for the
young man-sometimes, alas the petition
unavailing.
How brightly the path Of unrestrained
amusement opens! The young man says:
"Now am off for good time. Never
mind economy. I'll get money somehow.
What fine road! What beautiful day
for ride! Crack the whip and over the
turnpikel Come, boys, fill high your
glasses! Drink Long life, health, plenty
of rides just like this!" HANDWRITING
men hear tho clatter Of the hoofs and look
up and say: "Why, wonder where those
fellows get their money front We have
to toll and drudge. They do nothing"
To these gay men life is 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 flash The midnight hears their
guffaw. They swagger. They jostle decent
men off the sidewalk. They take tho name
of God In vain. They parody tho hymn
they learned at their mothers knee, and
to all pictures of coming disaster they cry
out, who carcsp" and to the counsel of
some Christian friend, who arc your"
Passing along the street some night you
hear n shrek in grogshop, the rattle Of
the watchman's club the rush of the po-
lice. What is the matter nowp Oh, this
reckless young man has been killed in
grogshop fightl Garry 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 ever did,
though he cannot in his silence ask it.
The prodigal has got home at last. Mother
will go to her little garden and get the
sweetest flowers and twist them into q
chaplet for the silent heart Of the hayward
| boy and push back from the bloatcd 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 sonl
| Would God had died for thee, OH my
son, my sonr'
Effect of the Body on the Soul.
You may judge of amusemcnts by their
effect upon physical health. The need Of
many good people is physical recupcration.
| There are Christian men who write hard
things against their immortal souls when
there is nothing the matter with them but
an incompetent liver. There are Christian
people who seem to think that 1t is Il good
sign to be poorly, and because Richard
Baxter and Robert Hall were invalids they
] think that by the same sickness they may
come to the same grandeur of character.
l want to tell Christian people that God
will hold you responsible for your invalid
ism If 1t 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 man Of mild disposition upon the
animal diet of which tho Indian partakes
and in 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 unre-
lenting The body has powerful effect
upon the soul There arc people whose
ideas of heaven are all shut ont with
clouds of tobacco smoke. There ere people
who dare to shattor tho physical vase in
which God put the jewel of eternity.
There are men with great hearts and in
tcllects in bodies worn out by their own
neglccts. Magnificent machinery capable
of rropelling great Etrura across the
Atlantic, yet fastened in rickety North
n