The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-07-28
AMUSEMENT
ROAD TO HELL
By DR.. Charles Bayard Mitchell
Pastor St. James M. E. Church
Chicago

dCS llIIdllOll w Z SDOulu dll llSl6A "
the warning of Solomon, who said,
Ponder the path of thy feet" The
best travellers are open to mistakes.
1t is easy to get off the right road. 1t
is both humiliating and fatal to get on
the wrong road, especially when the
train never stops and there is no re-
turn ticket.
The tragedy of life is that young
men and women who need most wis
dom have the least. l am standing
here tonight as a guard at the station
gate, warning people against taking
the amusement road which leads from
Chicago to hell.
Many young people, and older. are
making the mistake referred to here
by SolOmon-the mistake in supposing
that there is nothing better in life
than amusing ones self. All thought
full folk value recreation. They know
that there must be hours of rest and
change of thought and employment.
Body and mind need rest. Science is
teaching us that even inanimate mat
ter gets tired and needs a rest. Car
wheels and razors alike need rest.
There is strange restorative power
In steel to recoup itself after its mole
cules have begun to crystalline and
grow brittle.
God has implanted in each of US an
instructive love for those things which
will bring rest to mind and body We
need to unbend. We need to relax
muscle and rest brain. Hence the
play-element is our safety valve Wit
and humor give rest and relaxation
to the mind. People who never laugh
| have poor stomachs and never live out
half their days. God intends his chill
dren to come to their best He wants
us to be fitted for work, and we can
only be best fitted for work when we
have had opportunity for the needed
play.
Amusement is as much a part of
Gods program for our life as Is
work. The old notion that a sorrow
full life is sign OF piety and that
sanctity is measured by the degree of
ones misery, has long since been ex-
ploded. There is some sarcasm but
more truth in the old notion that the
Puritans opposed bullbaiting not so
much on the ground that it gave the
bulls pain as that it gave the people
pleasure.
There are a thousand ways in
which God has planned for the happi-
ness of his children. 1t can be relied
upon that the amusements God would
have us freely employ are such as are
devoid of these four things: First,
| they must not be unduly eXtravagant;
! second, they must not be damaging to
| health; third, they must not be detri-
mental to the mind, and fourth, they
| must not be contrary to good morals
| Those four principles are fundamen-
tai, and we must Judge all pleasures
| by them.
There are many going along the
! they are Christians, they will not have
a good time. Worldly-minded, evil
minded people do have a good time,
| according to their standard of what
a good time is. Many a youth needs
to have his ideal of pleasure changed;
and until he does he will be unable
| TO be happy according to rational
| ideals
/ A drunkard may have good time
according to his present ideal; but
when he comes to self-mastery he
will no longer seek pleasure in such
| bestial manner. According to their
tastes, wicked people have jolly times.
! But so soon as their lives are trans
formed by divine grace, they come to
| loathe the sty OF the swine, because
they are now qualified for the refined
joys of the palace
They who find their pleasures in
the qualification OF the fleshly appe-
tites cannot understand how one can
find JOY in the realm of the mental
and spiritual.
A Christian can enjoy even far
more the legitimate pleasures of the
| physical senses, for they have not
been dulled or diseased by safety
His mind can grasp the wonders and
beauties of the world with keener vi
| sion, because ms powers are not
dulled by dissipation. The Christian
finds no bar across any pathway OF
pleasure which does not lead TO sor-
row and defeat. He finds every path
way open which leads to the pleasures
which bring no sting.
The devil lies when he tells youth
he must be bad to be happy. Any
man who will open his eyes can see
that it is the transgressor of Gods
laws who has the hard time. 1t is
the devils children, not Gods, who
! have a hell of time on earth.
Many are going down to hell on the
amusement road because as they say.
they do not want any check or re-
straint upon them. | frequently am
told by men and women that they
would join the church if there were
no restraint upon them; if they could
! do as they please.
Some churches have tried it. There
arc so-called liberal churches which
have required almost nothing in the
way of subscribing to a creed, and
who have required less in the way of
moral restraints on personal conduct