The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1901-05-24


eXuberant nature viii do vel =, look
at the reaction OF all their a,,se-
ments- If an amusement serds
you home at night nervous so
that you cannot sleep. and YOU
rise up in the morning not because You
are slept out. but because yorr dirty
drags you from your silmbers YOU
have been where you ought NOT "a have
been. There are amusements that
send a man next day to his work with
his eyes bloodshot. yawning. stupid,
nauseated, and they are wrong kinds
of amusement. They are entertain
ments that give a 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 in
furiated bulls of the arena. If any
amusement sends you home longing
for n life of romance and thrillin0 adj
venture, love that takes poison and
shoots itself. moonlight adventures
and hair-breadth escapes. YOU may de-
pend upon it that you are the sacri-
feed victim OF unsanctifed pleasure.
Our recreations are intended TO build
us up, and If they pull Us down as to
our moral or as 70 our physical
strength you may come 10 the con-
clusion that they are obnoxious.
StIil further, these amusements are
wrong which lead you into expendi-
lures beyond your means. Money
spent in recreation is not thrown
away 1t is all folly for us to come
from n place Of amusement fe4ling
that we have wasted our money and
time. You may by it have made an
Investment worth more than the
transaction that yielded YOU hun
dreds of thousands of dollars. But
how many properties have been rid
died by costly amuscments.
The first time | ever saw the city
ii was the city OF Philadelphia was
a mere lad. | stopped at hotel. and
| remember in the eventide one of
these men piled me with his internal
art. He saw / was green. He wanted
TO show me the sights OF the town.
He painted the path of sin until it
looked like emerald. but | was afraid
of him. ! showed back from the bas-
silisk-I made up my mind he was a
basilisk. | remember how he wheeled
his chair round in front of me, and,
with "A cOncentered and diab6licaI eff
fort, attempted 10 destroy my soul.
but there were good angels in the air
that night. 1t was no good resolution
on my part, but it was the all en-
comprising grace Of good God hat
delivered me. Beware. beware, O
young man, There is a way that
seemeth right unto n man, but the
end thereof is DEATH
The table has been robbed TO pay
the club. The champagne has cheat
ed the children's wardrobe. The ca
rousing party has burned up the
boys primer. The tablecloth Of the
corner saloon is in debt to the wi-e's
faded dress. Excursions that I'LL
day make tour around a wy
months wages. ladies. whose lifetime
business it is 10 90 shopping, large
bets on horses. have their counter
parts in uneducated children, bank
ruptcies that shock the money mar
ket and appall the church and that
send drunkenness staggering across
the richly figured carpet of the man
sion 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.
/ saw a beautiful home where the
bell rang violently late at night. The
son had been off in sinful indul-
gences His comrades were bringing
him home. They carried him 20 the
door. They rang the bell at one
o'clock in the morning. Father and
mother came down. They were wait
ing for the wandering son. and then
the comrades as soon as the door
was opened threw the prodigal head
long into the doorway, crying:
There he is as drunk as a fool, Ha.
ha." When men go into amusements
that they cannot afford. they first
borrow what they cannot earn. and
then they steal what they cannot
borrow First they go into cmbarrass-
ment and then into lying and then
into theft. and when a man gets so
far as that he does not stop short of
the penitentiary. There is not a pris-
on in the land Were there are not
victims of unsanctiiied amusemelts.
Merchant. is there a disarrange-
ment in your accounts? Is there a
leakage in your money drawer? Did
not the cash account come out right
last night? i will tell you. There is a
young man in your store wandering off
into bad amusements. The salary
YOU give him may meet lawful eXpend-
lures, but not the sinful indulgences
in which he has entered, and he takes
by theft that which you do not give
him in lawful salary.
| go further and say those are un-
Christian amusements which become
the chief business of mans life. Life
is an earnest thing. Whether we are
born in a palace or hovel. whether we
are affiuent or pinched, we have to
work. If you do not sweat with toll,
you will sweat with disease. You have
a soul that is 10 be TRANSPORTED amid
the pomp of a judgment day, and after
the sea has sung its last chant and
the mountain shall have come down
II s.