The Penn's Grove record., 1901-05-24
DIR, TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS oTscouRsE BY THE NOTED
L&vlNE.


Subject; The Benefits of Rational Amuse
ments Evils of straitiacket Religion
-Depraving Influences-Warm Heart.
ed People Most Tempted.
Copyright IaOf.l
WASHINGTON, ID. C.-This discourse oil
Dr. !aimage IS in accord with all innocent
hllarltles, while it reprchends amusement,
that belttle and deprave; text, II Samuel
n ~ Let the young men now arise and
There are two armies encamped by the
pool OF Glbeon. The time hangs heavily
on their hands. One army nronoses i
game OF sword fencing. Nothing could be
more healthful and innocent. The other
army accepts the challenge. Twelve men
against twelve men, the sport opens, But
something went adversely. Perhaps one
OF the swordsmen got an unlucky Slip OF
IN some way nd his ire aroused. and that
Ehich opened IN sportfulness ended in VIC.
renee, each one taking his contestant by
the hair and then with the sword thrust.
ing HIM in the side, so that that which
opened In innocent fun ended in the mas.
saere OF all the twenty-four sportsmen.
Was there ever a better illustration of
what was true then and is true now-that
that winch is innocent may be made de.
~
What OF a worldly nature is more i'm
pgortant and strengthening and innocent
than amusement, and yet what has count.
ed more victims? | have no sympathy
with a straitjacket religion. This is a very
bright world to me, and | propose to do
all 1 can to make it bright for others. |
never could keep step to a dead march. A
book years ago issued says that a Chris.
ian man mas a right to some amusements.
Cof instance, II he comes at night weary
from his work and, feeling the need Of
recreation, puts on his slippers and goes
INTO his garnet and walks lively round the
loor several times there can be no harm
IN 1t. L believe the church of God has
maze a great mistake in trying to suppress
the sportfulness of youth and drive out
from men their love of amusement. II
God ever implanted anything in us, lie
implanted this desire. But instead of pro.
viding for this demand OF our nature the
church of God has for the main part ig.
niored II. AS IN a riot the mayor plants a
battery at the end Of the street and has it
hreu on so that everything 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
c~ohdelnnation and fire away indiscrimin-
4ateiy' Everything is condemned. But
Haul,. the apostle, commends those who
use the world without abusing it, and in
the natural world God has done everything
to please and amuse us.
And l am glad to know that in all our
cities there are plenty of places where we
may iind elevated moral entertainment.
But all honest men and good women will
agree with me in the statement that one
Of the worst things in these cities is cor
rupt amusement. Multitudes have gone
down under the blasting influence, never
to rise Ii 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 proiligacy to reach. At
Naples, Italy, they keep such pictures
locked up from indiscrimiuate inspection.
those pictures were exhumed from Pom
pen, and are not fit for public gaze. If the
eiirontery OF bad places OF amusement in
hanging out improper advertisements of
what they are doing night by night grows
worse IN the same proportion, in fifty
years some OF our modern cities will beat
Pompeii.
l project, certain principles by which
you may judge in regard to any amusement
or recreation, finding out for yourself
whether 1t is right or wrong.
| remark, in the first place. that YOU can
judge of the moral character of any amuse.
ment by its healthful result or by its bale
tul reaction. There are people who seem
made up of hard facts. They are a combi-
nation OF multiplication tables and statis-
tics. ii you. show them an exquisite pic
ture they will begin to discuss the pig
ments involved in the coloring. If you
show them a beautiful rose they will sub
NIT it to a botanical analysis, which is only
the post-mortem examination Of a flower.
They never do anything more thar smile.
They have no rebound in their nature.
There are no great tides Of feeling surging
up from the depths OF their soul in billow
after blllow OF reverberating laughter. They
seem 1851 if nature had built them by CON
tract and made a b%ungling job of it. But
blessed be God, there are people in the
world who have bright faces and whose
life is a song, an anthem, a paean of vic
tory.
Now, it is these exhilarant and sympa-
thetic and warm hearted people that are
most tempted to %pernicious amusements.
In proportion as a ship is swift it wants a
strong helmsman, in proportion as a horse
is gay It wants a stout driver, and these
people OF eXuberant nature will do well to
look at the reaction of all their amuse-
ments. If an amusement sends you home
at night nervous, so that you cannot sleep,
and you rise up in the morning not be-
cause you are slept out, but because your
duty drags you from your SAUNDERS, you
have been where you ought not to have
been. There are amusements that send q
man next day to his work with his ewes
bloodshot, yawning, stupid, nauseated, and
they are wrong kinds of amusement. They
are entertainments that give a man dis
gust with the drudgery OF life, with tools
because they are not swords, with work
ing aprons because they are not robes,
with cattle because they are not Infatuated
bulls of the arena.
Ii any amusement sends you home long
tn0 fnr n hfn oE p1pnar, nyI tL-.11..- -
venture, love that takes poison and shoots
itself, moonlight adventures and hair
breadth escapes, you may depend upon it
that you are the sacrificed victim of I'M
sanctiiied pleasure. Our r~ecreations are
intended to build us up, and if they pull
us down as to our moral or as to our ply
steal strength you may come to the con-
elusion that they are obnoxious.
There is nothing more %depraving than
attendance upon amusements hat are full
OF innuendo and low suggestion. The
young man enters. At first he sits far
back, with his hat on and his coat collar
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 came into his
cheek when anything indecent was enacted
comes no more to his cheek. Farewell,
young man! You have probably started
on the long road which ends in consum-
mate destruction. The stars of hope will
go out one by one until 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 in, and the gentle motion will be
come terrific agitation; You cry for help
in vain; you pull at the oar to 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 10000 hulks..
Young men who have come from the
country residence to city residence will dc
well to be on guard and let no one induce
them 10 places OF improper amusement. 1t
is nightly alluring when a young man,
long a 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 rec
reation Is not thrown away, 1t is all folly
for us to come from a place Of amusement
feeling that we have wasted our money
and time. You may by it have made an
investment worth more than the t~ransac-