The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-26
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.

ee>.=. Washington, May 19.-This discourse of | pr. Talmage is in accord with all inno- cent hilarities, while it reprehends amuse- ments that belittle and deprave; text, II samuel II, IA. Let the young men now arise and play before us"
 There are two armies encamped by the pool or Gibeon. The time hangs heavily on their hands. One army proposes a game Of sword fencing. Nothing could
 De more healthful and innocent. The
 other army accepts the challenge. Twelve
 men against twelve men, the sport opens. but something went adversely. Perhaps one or the swordsmen got an unlucky clip or In some way had his ire aroused and that which opened in sportfulness ended Tn violence, each one taking his contes-
 tant by the hair and then with the sword thrusting him in the side so that that which opened in innocent fun ended in the massacre Of all the twenty-four sports men Was there ever a better illustration ot what was true then and is true now destructive?
 + What of worldly nature is more im- portant and strengthening and innocent
 than amusement, and yet what has count ca more victims? I have no sympathy with straitjacket religion. This is very bright world to me, and 1 propose to do all can to make 1t bright for oth- CTS. I never could keep step to A dead march. A book years ago issued saws that Christian man has a right to some amusements. For instance if he comes home at night weary rom his work and, feeiing the need of recreation. puts on his slippers and goes into his garret and walks lively round the floor several times there can be no harm in 1t. believe the church of God has made great mistake in try ing to suppress the sportfulness of youth anddrive out from men their love of amusement If God ever implanted any, thing in us. he implanted this desire. But our nature the church of God has for the main part ignored it. As in a riot the | mayor plants battery at the end of the street and has it fired off so that every thing 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. Everything Is condemned. But Paul the apostle com, mends those who use the world without abusing it, and in the natural world God l has. done everything to please and amuse us.
 Evils of Corrupt Amusements. And I am glad to know that in all our we may find elevated moral entertain ment. uBt all honest men and good wo- men will agree with me in the state
 ment. that one of the worst things ia these cities is corrupt amusement. Null titudes have gone down under the blast ing influence. never to rise. If we may judge of what Is going on in many of the
 places of amusement by the pictures on board fences and in many of the show windows. there is not a much lower depth of profligacy to reach. At Naples, Italy, they keep such pictures locked up from indiscrimfnate inspection. Those pictures were exhumed from Pompeii and are not fit for public gaze. If the ef-
 frontery of bad places of amusement in hanging out improper advertisements of what they are doing night by night grows
 
 years some of our modern cities will beat Pompeii.
 I project certain principles by which you may judge In regard to any amuse-
 ment or recreation. finding out for your self whether 1t is right or wrong.
 l remark, in the first place. that you
 an judge of the moral character of any amusement by it's healthful result or by it's baleful reaction. There are people who
 seem made up of hard facts. They are combination of multiplication tables and statistics. If you show them an ex-
 quisite picture they will begin to discuss the pigments involved In the coloring. If you show them a beautiful rose, they will submit 1t to botanical analysis. which is only the post mortem examination of
 flower. They have no rebound in their nature. They never do anything more than smile. There are no great tides of feeling surging up from the depths of verberating laughter They seem as if
 nature had built them by contract and
 made bungling job of it. But blessed De God, there are people in the world who have bright faces and whose life Is
 a song, an anthem, paean of victory.
 Now. 1t is these exhilarant and sym pathetic and warm-hearted people that
 are most tempted to pernicious amuee-
 ments. In proportion as a ship is swift
 It wants strong helmsman, in propor-
 ton as a horse Is gay it wants a stout
 driver, and these people of exube-ant na-
 ture will do well to look at the reaction
 Of all their amusements. If an amuse- 'ment sends you home at night nerxons-
 se-s.ssss yStz CdTnOI sleep, and you rise m
 Tn the morning not because you are slept out, put because your duty drags you from your slumbers, you have been where
 you ought not to have been. There are
 amusements that send a man next day to
 ms ms work with his eyes bloodshot yawn- lng' stupid, nauseated, and they are
 wrong kinds of amusement They are en-
 tertainments that give a man disgust
 with the drudgery of life, with tools be- cause they are not swords, with work ing aprons because they are not robes
 with cattle because they are not infuri- ated bulls of the arena. If any amuse-
 ment sends you home longing for a life
 of romance and thrilling adventure love
 that takes poison and shoots itself, moon- light adventures and hairbreadth es- capes, you may depend upon 1t that you are the sacrificed victim of unsanctihed pleasure. Our recreations are intended to
 build us up, and If they pull us down as to our moral or to our physical strength you may come to the conclusion
 that they are obnoxious.
 Depraving Influences.
 There is nothing more depraYing than attendance upon amuSements that are full of innuendo and low suggestion. The young man enters. At first he sits far back. with his hat on and his coat col lar up. fearful that somebody there may know him. Several nights pass on He takes off his hat earlier and puts his coat collar down. The blush that first cent was enacted comes no more to his cheek. Farewell, young man! You have probably started on the long road which ends in conGummate destruction. The stars of hope will g1 out one by one un- til you will be left in utter darkness.
 Hear you not the rush of the maelstrom, in whose outer circle your boat now
 dances, making merry with the whirling
 waters? But you are being drawn n and
 the gentle motion will become terrific
 agitation. You cry for help in vain; you
 pull at the oar 10 put back. but the
 struggle will not avail. You will be
 tossed and dashed and shipwreCked and
 swallowed in the whirlpool that has al.
 ready crushed in its wrath l0.t0i hulXS.
 Young men who have come from the
 country residence to city residence will
 do well to be on guard and let no one in-
 duce them to places of improper amuse-
 ment It is nightly slluTing when a
 young man, long citizen, offers to show
 a newcomer all around.
 Still further. those amusementS are
 wrong which lead you into expenditure
 beyond your means. Money spent in
 recreation Is not thrown away. It is all
 folly for us to come from a place of
 amusement feeling that We have wasted
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