The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-11-18
THE vrRGrNrANs WEEKLY SERMON
THE DEVILS OUARTETTE
nv REV. ROBERT LOVE. tn &.
Pastor Of the West End Baptist Church. Petersburg Va

should be moral. but the management
soon had to change it's policy in or
1 der to keep IL from bankruptcy.
A strictly moral theatre cannot 1--we.
| The theatre-Euers Will not patrenize
! IL Mary Anderson left the stage
I, and declared that on moral grounds
she did not wish her children to
attend the theatre
A friend agreed to go with his
| companion TO the theatre with the
| understanding that they would leave
as soon as anything should he said
or done that they would not like for
their sisters or their mother to hear.
They left during the first act.
II cannot he denied that the the
atre as an institution Is bad. II Is
carnage house OF morality. chastity.
virtue aud purity. 1t is the enemy
OF righteousness and holiness. NO
| man or woman can afford to drink
barrel OF poison In order To get
spoonful OF honey, and that in about
| the proportion of good In the theatre
No Christian man or woman can ar
! ford to give such an institution their
| endorsement. their money or their
time.
=. The Card Table.
Cards were invented for the enter
tainment of an idiotic king, SO history
! tells us, and ii does not take many
I brains nor Il very high grade to ma
I nipuiate pack of cards. While the
highest grade Of brains IL sometimes
/ used, the lower grades are undoueteG-
| y in more general use.
at ~ ~eHaef4at' says Addison. TO
I see persons ot the best sense passing
away noNr together snuuilns ana al
/ wang u pack III CARDS.
has any man or woman the right.
I II that was tho only question In
/ vol, 81. to waste their previous time
| IN sucn n seiess, frivolous way
1 IL ~ said lHsel not less than thirty
! million packs III cards are inanuiae-
i, Iarsd every year In America, Those.
/, tnirty million packs OF carus are an
! index to u desert waste OF precious
Time, to say nothing or the millions
Of dollars that are squanderedi the
! homes that are wicked. and the lives
| hat are ruined. Jne mania tor gam
ding Is one OF the greatest evils when
! ihreaens our country to-day. The
| whole nation Ii running Wild on the
| idea OF getting something for moth
ing. From the crap shooter in the
| alley to the millionaire gambler. men
and women, too. OF nearly every class
are INDUCING in this vice. Hut they
are not all judged alike by public SEN
| timent. They are not all weighed in
| the same scales. They are not all
measured by the same standard.
II rose by any other name would
smell just as sweet, then surely gam
-bling 10y any other name In no less
gam bling. A Boston society woman
was one morning censuring her son
Tor gambling. Where did you get
| that vase III the parlor.'' said he
Il won 1t at a euehre party she re-
| piled. Then how dare you censure
me for gambling when you are guilty
of the same thing retorted the boy
Anthony Cemstoek asserts that many
Of the black-legged gamblers of New
| fork city belong 10 the first families
and We're taught to gamble by their
mothers, sisters and sweethearts A
pack of cards does not represent an
I innocent game, but IL great foul In
stitution which has been curse TO
mankind. The card table is q world
wide evil. II has been bIackefied by
dishonesty: dfsgraced by innumerable
| wrecks or character and painted Grim
son with the blood Of murdered men.
! No Christian man or woman can ar
ford to endorse or advocate a thing
which has wrought SO much evil in
! the world
| 3 The ball room.
!
uneasy sensation about my throat. for
remember far greater preacher
tnan am had his head danced of. -
said MIR. Spurgeon. However pleasing
| the dance may have been 10 Herod
and his wicked associates. II was daafn
70 John the Baptist. No man or wo-
man who has any appreciation Of mo-
| rdis ana Vaiues truth can question the
| assertion that the influence OF the hall
l room 7 a
All VINO dance are immoral far from
IL nut ! do say that II they main.
tain their morality. it is in spite OF
| IN" seductive influence Of the bah
room ana not because the bali room
>. ~ q friend to virtue and. purity.
lhe dance has always been frausht
with evil Even the sacred books
OF the paeans declare ii to be an
immoral amusement. Cicero. In de
scrtbing the dance in his day. de-
nonnced II as indecent and Volupt:t-
Gus"
The dancing pf the sexes together
AS IN modern times was never in
dhiRsd In by the yfrtuous In Bible
Times. In the ballroom vice ana viz
! tue are brought into close CONTACT.
| the one with the other. and vice.
| being In the ascendency. puts virtue
To a great disadvantage But" saws
! SOM DR. makes one 4
| to dance Not necessarily So Pliny
tells US that elephants were good
| dancers in his day,
/ know a little girl who positive
| ~ refused to take dancing LESSONS.
though her father and mother plead
with her to do so. The result is that
= through that child's influence the
! father and mother have been brought
! into tho church aud into the fold
! OF God.
4. The barroefn
II there is one evil institution upon
the face OF the globe which serve.
the deyil more faithfully than any
| other. II Is undoubtedly the licensed
/ harrao 1t sends a hundred thou
: sand victims into drunkard's graves
every year and yet the ranks of King
i Bihbler's army are not broken. Re-
| cruits are constantly pouring in from
every quarter Young men and
young women. too, many OF them
| from homes Of wealth and culture, as
| well AS from haunts OF infamy and
l. The licensed barrpom Is not only
shame. as IL goes on, tramp! tramp
| ira mp. down to death and hell
the devils recruiting station, it is
his armory and arsenal: his incn-
hator. In which crime and iniauity
OF every conceivable kind IL Matched
But the days OF the barroom are
| numbered. and the numbers are few.
! We are told that we cannot legis-
/ late people into morality. Then let
! us see To II that we do not legislate
!! them into immortality II we cannot
| make men good by law. We can. by