The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-26

educated children, bankruptcies that shock the money market and appall the
 church and that send drunkenness stag fering across the richly figured carpet of l 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 mothers heart.
 l l saw a beautiful home where the beil | rang violently late at night. The son had l been off in sinful indulgences. His com
 rades were bringing him home. They
 carried him to the door. They rang the bell at 1 o'clock in the morning. Father l and mother came down. They were wait | ing for the wandering son, and then the comrades. as soon as the door was opened
 doorway, crying. There he Is, drunk as
 a fool. Ha. har' When men go into
 amusements that they cannot afford, they
 steal what they cannot borrow, First lying and then into theft, and when | man gets as far on as that he does not 1 stop short of the penitentiary. There is | not prison in the land where they are | not victims of unsanctifled amusements. Merchants, is there disarrangement | in your accounts? bs there a leakage in your money drawer? Did not the cash l account come out right last night? I will | tell you. There Is a young man in your | store wandering of into bad amusements. | The Salary you give him may meet law | ful expenditures. but not the sinful indul- | gencies in which he has entered. and ho takes by theft that which you do not | give him fin lawful salary.
 How brightly the path of unrestrained | amusement opens! The young man says: Now I am of for a good time. Never mind economy. I'll get money somehow. l What a fine road. What a beautiful day I for ride Crack the whip, and over
 the turnpike! Come, boys. i'll high your of rides just like this" Hardworking men head the clatter of the hoofs and
 look up and say: Why. I wonder where | those fellows get their money from? We have to toll and drudge they do nothing" | To these gay men life Is a thrill and an excitement. They stare at other people and in turn are stared at. The watch flush; the eyes flash; the midnight hears | their guffaw; they swagger: they jostle | decent men off the sidewalk; they take l the name of God in vain; they parody the
 and to all pictures of coming disaster | they cry out, Who cares?" and to the | counsel of some Christian friend, Who | are you?" Passing along the street some the rattle of the watchman's club. the
 rush of the police What Is the matter now? Oh. this reckless young man has been killed in a grogshop fight. Carry | will come down and wash his wounds and
 close his eyes in death. They forgive him all he ever did although 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 a chaplet for the silent | heart of the wayward boy and push back
 from the bloated brow the long locks that | were once her pride and the air will be
 rent with the agony. hTe great drama
 tist says, How sharper than serpent's
 tooth 1t is to have thankleSs child!' Healthful Recreation.
 I go further and say those are un- l Christian amusements which become the | h1 I.if {G an earnest thing. Whether we were born | in a palace or hovel, whether we are af l fluent or pinched, we have to work. If you do not sweat with toll, you will sweat | with disease. You have a soul that Is to
 be transfgured amid the pomp of | judgment day, and after the sea has sung
 Its last chant and the mountain shall l have come down in an avalanche of rock you will live and think and at, high on | throne where seraphs sing or deep in dungeon where demons howl. In a world
 where there is so much to do for our | selves and so much to do for others God l pity that man who has nothing to do.
 Your sports are merely means to an end. They are alleviations and helps. The arm
 bring up the bucket out of the deep well | of pleasure. Amusement is the only | bower where business and philanthropy l rest while on their way to stirring achievements. Amusements are merely
 the vines that grow about the anvil Of | toll and the blossoming of the hammers. Alas for the man who spends his life in
 laboriously doing nothing, his days in | his nights In seeking out some gaslighted | foolcry! Then who always has on | his sporting jacket. ready to hunt Tor
 game in the mountain or fish In the | brook. with no time to pray or work or | read is not so well off as the grey l hound that runs by his side or the fly bait with which he whips the stream. | man who does not work does not know fn m Tf intended II nothing but laugh he would not have given
 us shoulders with which to lift and hands | with which to work and brains with which to think The amusements of life | are merely the orchestra playing while the great tragedy Of life plunges through | it's five acts-infancy, childhood, man. l hood. old age and -deeth--Thess e | last earthly opportunity Enter the over whelming realities of an eternal world! l go further and say that all those
 amusements are wrong which lead into
 where you have to associate with the in- | temperate, however well they may be dressed. in the name of God quit 1t. They will despoil your nature. They will | undermine your moral character. They | will drop you when you are destroyed. l They will give not one cent to support
 your children when you are dead.
 | 1 had friend in the west-a rare
 come me to my new home. To fine per sonal appearance he added a generos- | ity, frankneSs and ardor of nature that l made me love him like a brother. But
 I saw evil people gathering around him. They came up from the saloons, from
 the gambling hells. They piled him with a thousand arts. They seized | upon his social nature. and he could not stand the charm. They drove him on
 the rocks, like a ship. full winged, shiv- | ering on the breakers l used to admon- | ish him. I would cay. Now. I wish you would quit those bad habits and
 become a Christian" On he would | to. but I have gone so far I don't think | there is any way back" In his moments | of repentance he would go home and l take his little girl of years and em- | brace sher convulsiveiy. and cover her | with adornments. and strew around her | pictures and toys and everything that
 could make her happy. and then, as though nounded by an evil spirit, he
 would go out to the nflaming cup and
 the house of shame like d fool to the | correction of the stocks.
 | The Delilah of Sin.
 | was summoned to his q athbed; l hastened; I entered the room 1 found
 him. to my surprise. lying m full every | day dress on the top of the couch. I | put out my hand He grasped 1t excited | ly and said, "Sit down. I'M. Talmage; | right there" I sat down He said: Last night I saw my mother. who has l beeiIs dead % years and she sat just | where you sit now. It was no dream.
 I was wide awake. There was no delus- ] lon in the matter. l saw her just as | would take these strings off me. There are strings spun all around my body. 1 1 wish you would take them off me :" l 1 saw it was delirlum. "Oh," replied his