The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1911-02-16
GREAT CROWD At !.
CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Hears Evangelist Lockhart's Lecture
! .re or Amusements.
EIGHT MORE. ARE CONVERTED
This Makes One Hundred and Forty.
Six in all Since the Meetings
started--Twenty.one Were
Baptized. fa

The Christian church was filled
with a great crowd last evening to
hear Evangelist Lockhart's lecture
on popular amusements. Eight more
confessed Christ and. twenty-one
We're baptized. The total number of
conversions since the meetings start
ed now numbers 146.
Rev. Lockhart scored dancing, the
theatre and card playing, but he gave
base ball his unqualified endorse
ment Base ball he said Is clean,
because the gambling features are
being rapidly eliminated--but II the
game is to continue clean and popular
Sunday base ball must go.
Rev. Lockhart was especially
severe in his denunciation of cards,
declaring that he could see no dis.
tinction between a social game OF
cards for a prize and gambling for
money in dive He said the one
was the beginning Of the career OF
a life OF gambling; the other the end.
He declared women who play cards
are untitled for wives and mothers
and useless TO the church, He did
not believe all theatres were bad, and
said the stage could be made a great
agency for the moral uplift OF the
people IL IL could be purged of it's
impnrity, obscenity and suggestive
ness. The dance came in for large
share of Mr.. Lockhart's attention.
He quoted figures to show dancing
ruined thousands of young women
and tens of thousands of young men
every year He said in part:
Fovors More Healthful Recreation.
The average American community
and especially the city. needs more
amusement, and not less than we
now have. The average American
works too necessarily and spends
too little time in recreation So, in
the first place, do not want to be
misunderstood as taking stand
against helpful amusements. But
that which some people call amuse-
ment is properly designated by the
word dissipation.
| ! speak from the viewpoint of the
church. ], therefore, assume there
is difference between the man who
is Christian and the man who is
not. II there il no difference, and
| there Is not line to be drawn, then
we had better turn our church build
| ings into club houses and call them
htyt No inh . 10 ~,
that permits its members to engage
in all the questionable amusements
of modern life is bringing reproach
to the name of Christ and in reality
is club instead OF a church.
Base ball is great game, andhas
my unqualified Endorsement. 1t is
being elevated. and our pride in 1t as
national sport is leading us to elm
mate the gambling feature largely;
but the Dissertation OF the Lords
day by Sunday base ball must cease
Unless the game is kept clean II may
be so degraded by the sporting gang
that Christian people would have TO
taboo it. shKl
Could we purge the theatre of its
impurity and obscenity and sugges.
tiveness, it might yet be made a
great agency for the moral upldft
and entertainment of the people.
But three-fourths of the average thea
tiers Of the day. are impure and unfit
places for Christian to. be found.
Last year We spent 00,O00,0 900 for
theatrical amusements, 80 per cent of
which went to the vaudeville and
cheap theatre. The theatre began
with the church, but the church GER
tainly cannot approve of the theatre
as Il exists today.
The card game is pre-eminently
the devils tool. It is the great curse
Of the modern church. II is the bane
of the social life of the churches. II
is the great curse, because so insid
iously has the evil one intrenched
himself behind that deck of cards
that many young people are misled
to think the card game is mark of
social distinction. To all right.think-
ing people. it a marx of intellectual
fnferiority and social depravity.
u