The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-28
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.


custom of letting down the moral bars 1 during the summer vacation. Some of the evils peculiar to 90 called popular summer resorts are unsparingly denounced. The
 text is Numbers xxxii, g, "Be sure your
 sin will find you out"
 What are you going to do this summer?
 Take a vacation you answer. T am
 going away to the country. There was
 once a time when l did not believe in sum
 mer vacations. thought they were mere
 ly lazy mems excuses for shirkng work.
 But now 1 know that l was mistaken. I
 have been gradually breaking down under | the ceaseless monotonies of business.
 want and need a change. I am going out
 among the green hills or down by the sea-
 shore l will leave word that all letters ] and telegrams at the store as far as pos
 sible must remain unanswered until I get back. l am going to Eustioate. I
 shall turn myself out to grass and let my
 mind run fallow.9
 Good resolve, thatl I always did believe
 it better to pay for fresh air tonic and
 country sunlight than for a medicine
 chest I always did believe 1t far better
 to associate with the farmer the fisher
 man and the country toll gate keeper for i little while during the summer than 1t
 Is to have the doctor and the trained
 nurse your constant yisitants during the
 winter. The hammerings of the wood
 becker are much more pleasant for one l to hear than the crealSngs of rheumatic
 joints. The sunrise over the eastern hills
 fin the country after one has gone to bed
 at o'clock and slept through the night
 is far more enjoyable sight to see than
 sunrise in the city which one witnesses after an agonizlng night of seeplessness
 caused by that worst of all inquisitoriaI 1 fiends called insomnia.
 Beware of Sabbath Dissertation.
 But my hearers, before we separate for
 the summer, as your pastor l would like
 to ask you another question: What do l you expect to do when you are in the | country? How are you going to spend
 that vacation? Well" you answer, T | really do not know. I am going to let
 things drift and not make any plans. If
 l feel like fishing I will fish. If I want to
 take a drive l will go driving or l will | take a trip upon my bicycle. But the l simple fact Is l am not an enthusiastic 1 sportsman. I fear the time some days will drag heavily. But go away to the 1 country I will I know l need the trip"
 Yes. my brother. your answer is that which most men can give. You have | been working hard during your life In
 one sense you have destroyed your abil- | ity to play. Therefore when you go to | the country and do not know what to do l temptations will there assail you which l would never tempt you when you are at home and at work. Now, the purpose of l this sermon Is not to talk to libertines and loafers and dead beats. It Is not to upbrald the social outcasts and the sin- | full vampires who as human leeches try to suck the life's blood out of their fel- 1 low men at the summer watering places. | That class of people are not those whom I want to talk to now. But l would to- day, as a pastor, earnestly and prayerful- | ly give a few words of practical advice to ] hard working people who will spend their | vacations away from home. 1 would try
 to warn you against the temptations
 which will confront you and which, If
 successful, may destroy your entire Chris | tian character. The leprous germ
 absorbed into the spiritual body in a day may continue to work it's malformations | clear on down to the grave and change
 your whole eternal destiny
 Summer red light the first: Beware of
 Sabbath dissertation. That means be- l ware that you do not unarmor yourselves by one false move and leave your beat | ing hearts defenseless before the poisoned 1 arrows of the Satanic archers. Beware
 that you do not practically say to the | evil tempters. Here am 1, off on my | summer vacation. I have left my religion
 at home. I am ready to let you lead me
 where you will. For two or three weeks, l or one month at least, I will enter no | church. listen to no sermon, utter no public prayer and ask for no divine pro- | lection. I will take a holiday from re- 1 ligion as well as from business, and as a beginning I will disregard the Lords | day"
 How to Start Vacation.
 "What do you mean by such a warn- ing as that7" some one asks. Why do you place such emphasis upon Sabbath observance?" Because my friend, the way you generally start your summer vacation is the way you will end it. The Sabbath dissertation is the keynote, as a rule or the forerunner, of a long series of spiritual backslidng. How? In all probability. your summer vacation VIII start on a Saturday afternoon. How will you spend your first day in the countryT l Will you do 1t with prayer and conse- | cration? Will you do 1t by taking your | children to the Sunday school and join | ing the Christian workers of that neigh l borhood in public worship within the four
 walls of the little village church, or will l you do it by coming down In your nsh-
 ing togs or by waving your golf stick l or with your baskets full of food for I | picnic? Here are the two extremes. | Which will you choose? The one heads
 toward spiritual renovation the other
 heads toward spiritual death No man or l woman ever lived who could successfully resist the temptations of our summer re-
 sorts who started their vacations by
 breaking the law of Gods sacred Sab | bath Such a church member always | comes back to his church home moral l cripple after he has spent the Sabbath l days of his summer vacation In handing l the tiller of a sailboat or in hitting the little white balls over the golf links or in /, looking at the bobber floating at the end of a line attached to a fishing pole. Start | your vacation alright for God and It will l end right Start 1t by praying In the village pew for divine guidance. Start l it, If possible by helping the village | choir sing in the choir loft. Start 1t as you would start If the first Sabbath Of your summer vacation was to be your first Sabbath in heaven.
 Evils of Public Dancing. A
 Summer red light the second: Beware of the hotel ballroom and the summer public dance hall. l am not now dis cussing the subject of dancing in general; I am not considering whether it be right or wrong for the young folks, within the auietude and the sacred precinct of a home, to have one of their number finger the ivory keys of the piano; then, while the stately strains of the minuet or the | dancers sound forth, to have the boys and girls join hands and the slippered l feet keep step to the swifter or slower