The Nevada County picayune., 1910-07-15
AMUSEMENT ROAD TO HELL By pr. Charles Bayard Mitchell
 Pastor St. James M. E. Church Chicago

ing out of Chicago which are not on the map. These roads take different routes. but all lead to the same awful destination
 There are many travelling these roads who are not fully aware of their destination. We should all listen to the warning of Solomon, who said, Ponder the path of thy feet" The best travellers are open to mistakes. It Is easy to get off the right road. It Is both humiliatipg 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. 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 tul 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 rest Car wheels and razers alike need rest There Is strange restorative power in steel to recoup itself after its mole cules have begun to crystallize and grow brittle
 God has implanted in each of us an lnstinctive 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 10 the mind People who never laugh nave poor stomachs and never live out half their days. God intends his chil- 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.
 
 Gods program for our life as Is work. The old notion that sorrow ful life Is a 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. It 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 amusement road to hell for fear. if 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 youth needs to have his ideal of pleasure changed; aud until he does he will be unable to be happy according to rational ideals
 A drunkard may have a 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 feshly 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 satiety. His mind can grasp the wonders and beauties of the world with keener vii sion, because his 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 jaws who has the hard time. It is he devils children, not Gods. who have d 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-
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