RATIONAL AMUSEMENTS. “The Rev. Dr. Talmage Preaches on the + Evils of Straitjacket Religion, Plenty of Places Where We May Find Elevated Moral Entertainments, —— al {Copyright 1861.1 WasHiNGTON, D. C—~Thig discourse of . Talmage is in accord with all innocent hilarities, while it reprehends amusements that belittle and deprave; text, II Samuel ii, 14, “Let the youhg men now arise and before us.” here are two armies encamped by the pool of Gibeon. The time hangs heavily on their hands. One army proposes a game of sword fencing. Nothing could be more bealthful and innocent. e other army accepts the challenge. Twelve men against twelve men, the sport opens. But something went adversely. Perhaps one of the swordsmen got an unlucky slip or in some way uad his ire aroused, and that which opened in sportfulness ended in vio lence, each one taking his contestant by the hair and then with the sword thrust- g him in the side, so that that which opened in innocent fun ended in the mas- sacre of all the twenty-four sportsmen. (as there ever a better illustration of what was true then and is true now—that that which is innocent may be made de- structive? What of a worldly nature is more im- Joriant and strengthening and innocent han amusement, and yet what has count- ed more victims? have no sympathy with a straitjacket religion. This is a very bright world to me, and I propose to do all I can to make it bright for others. I never could keep step to a dead march. A book years ago issued says that a Chris tian man hag a right to some amusements. For instance, if he comes at night weary from his work and, feeling the need of recreation, puts on his slippers and goes into his garret and walks lively round the floor several times there can Le no harm in it. I believe the church of God has made a great mistake in trying to suppress the sportfulness of youth and drive out from. men their love of amusement. If God ever implanted anything in us, He implanted this desire. But instead of pro- viding for this demand of our nature the church of God has for the main part ig- pored it. As in a riot the mayor plants a battery at the end of the street and has it fired off so that everything is cut down that happens to bids in the range, the good as well as the bad, so there are men in the church who plant their batteries of condemnation and fire away indiscrimin- ately. Everythigg is condemned. But Paul. the apostle, commends those who use the without abusing it, and in the natural world God has done everything to please and amuse us. nd I am glad to know that in all our cities there are plenty of plaves where we may find elevated moral entertainment. But all honest men and good women will agree with me in the statement that one of the worst things in these cities is cor- rupt amusement. Multituades have gone down under the blasting influence, never to rise. If we may judge of what is going on in many of the places of amusement by the pictures on board fences and in many of the show windows, there is not a m lower depth of profligacy to reach. At Rapies. taly, k such locked up pla they keep pictures from indiscriminate inspection. Those pictures were exhumed from Pom- peii, and are not fit for public gaze. If the effrontery of bad places of amusement in apging out. improper advertisements of what they are doing night by night grows worse in the same proportion, in fifty years some of our modern cities will heat ’ompeii. I project certain principles by which you may Judge in regard to any amusement or recreation, finding out for yourself whether it is right or wrong. 1 remark, in the first place, that you can judge of the moral character of any amuse. ment by its healthful resul by its bale- ful reaction. There are e who seem made up of hard facts. They are a combi- nation of multiplication tables and statis tics. If you show them an exquisite pic ture they will begin to discuss the pig ments involved in the coloring. If you show them a beautiful rose they will sub mit it to a botanical analysis, which is only the post-mortem examination of a flower They have no rebound in their nature They never do anything more than smile There are no great tides of feeling surging up from the depths of their soul in b after billow of reverberating laughter. They seem as if nature had built them by con- tract and made a bungling job of it. But blessed be God, there are people in the world who have bright faces and whose life is a song, an anthem, a paean of vie tory. L Now, it is these exhilarant and sympa- thetic and warm hearted people that are most tempted to pernicious amusements In proportion as a ship is swift it wants a strong helmsman, in proportion as a horse 15 gay it wants a stout driver, and these poche of exuberant nature will do well to ook at the reaction of all their amuse ments. If an amusement sends you home at night nervous, xo that you cannot sleep, and you rise up in the morning not be- Cause you are ae out, but because your duty drags you from your slumbers, you have been where you ought not to have been. There are amusements that send a man next day to his work with his eyes bloodshot, yawning, stupid, nauseated. and they are wrong kinds of amusement. They are entertainments that give a nan dis st with the drudgery of Xife, with tools because they are not swords, with work- ing aprons because they are not robes with cattle because they are not infuriated bulls of the arena. . If any amusement sends you home long ing for a life of romance and thrillin a venture, love that takes poison and shoots itself, moonlight adventures and hair- breadth escapes, you may depend upon it that you are the sacrificed victim of un sanctified pleasure. Our recreations are intended to build ne up, and if they pull us down as to our moral or as to our phy- sical strength you may come to the con- clusion that they are obnoxious. is nothing more depraving than attendance upon amusements that are full of innuendo and low suggestion. The Joung man enters.’ At first he wits far ck, with his hat on and his coat eollar up, fearful that somebody there may know him. Beveral nights pass on. He takes off his hat earlier and puts his coat collar down. The blush that first came into his theek when anything indecent was enacted comes no more to his cheek. Farewell young man! You have probably started on the long road which ends in consum- mate destruction. The stars of hope will go out one by one until you will be left in utter darkness. Hear you not the rush of the maelstrom, in whose outer cirele your boat now dances, making merry with the whirli waters? But you are being drawn in, and the gentle motion will be- come terrific agitation. You ery for help in vain; you pull at the oar to put back but the st le will not avail. You will be tossed and dashed and shipwrecked and swallowed in the whirlpool that has al ready crushed in its wrath 10,000 hulke. oung men who have come from the country residence to city residence will do well to be on guard and let no one induce them to places of improper amusement. It is mightily alluring when a young man, long a citizen, offers to show a newcomer all around. Still further, those amusements are wrong which lead you into expenditure ond your means. Money spent in rec reation is not thrown away. It is all folly for us to come from a place of amusement feeling that we have wasted our money and time. You may by it have made an investment worth more than the transaec- tion that yielded you hundreds or thous. ands of are, But.kow many properties have been riddled by costly amusements. How brightly the path of unrestrained amusement opens! The young man says: “Now I ami off for a good time. Never mind economy. [I'll get money somehow, What a fine road! What a beautiful day for a ride! Crack the whip, and over the turnpike! Come, boys fill high your glasses! Drink! Lon fife, health, plenty of rides just like this!” Hard working men hear the clatter of the hoofs and look up and say: “Why, 1 wonder where those fellows get their money from? We have to toil wd drudge. * They do nothing.” To these gay men life is a thrill and an ex- citement. They stare at other people and in turn are stared at. The watch chain jingles; the cup foams; midnight hears their guffaw; they swagger; they jostle de- cent men off the sidewalk; they take the name of God in vain; they parody the hymn they learned at their mother’s knee, and to all pictures of coming disaster they ery out, ** Kho cares?” and to the counsel of some Christian friend, “Who are you?’ I go further and say that" all those amusements are wrong which lead into bad company. If you go to any place where you have to associate with the intemper- ate, with the unclean, with the abandoned, however well they may be dressed, in the yu name ‘of God quit it. They will despoil your nature. 1 had a friend in the West — a rare friend. He was one of the first to wel- come me to my new home. To fine per- sonal appearance he added a generosity, frankness and ardor of nature that made me love him like a brother, But I saw evil people gathering around him. They came up from the saloons, from the gambling hells. They plied him with a thousand arts. They seized upon his so- cial nature, and he could not stand the charm. They drove him on the rocks, like a ship, full winged, shivering on the break- ers. 1 used to admonish him I would say, “Now, I wish you would quit those bad habits and become a Christian.” “Oh,” he would reply, “I would like to, I would but I have gone so far I don't think there is any way back.” In his moments of repentance he would go home and take his little girl of eight years and embrace her convulsively, and cover her with adornments, and strew around her pictures and toys and every- thing that could make her happy, and then, as though hounded by an evil spirit, he would go out to the inflaming cup and the house of shame like a fool to the cor- rection of the stocks. I was sumn ed to his hastened; entered the room; I him, to my surprise, lying in 1 day dress on the top of the cou out my hand. He grasped it 3 1 gard: “Sit down, Mr. Talmage: right there.” I sat down. He said: night I saw my mother, who has been dead twenly years, and she sat just where you sit . dt was no dream, 1 was wide awake. There was no delusion in the matter. I saw her just as vy as I see vou. Wife. 1 wish you would take these strings off me. There are strings spun all around mv body. 1 wish you would take them off me.” 1 saw it was delirium. “Oh,” replied his wife, “my dear. there nothing there; there is hing there!” He went on and said t where vou sit, Mr. Talmage, my ther sat. She said to me, ‘Henry, | do wish you would do better.’ I got out bed, put my arms around her and said: ‘Mother, I want to do better. have been trving to do better, Won't yon help me to You used to help ¥ Noir ke about it; no delusion. I 1 CAT d the apron a the spectacles—just as she used to look twen- ty years ago. But I do wis} would take these strings away y AnNnOY me I can hardly tal Won't you taka them away?’ 1 knelt down and prayed, conscious of the that he did not realize what 1 was saying. I got up. 1 said: “Goodby! I hope you will be hotter soon.” He said, “Goodby, goo . hat night his soul went up t gave it Arrangem for the obsequies. Some bring church dissolute.” “Oh,” 1 said. was a good friend of min alive, and I shall stand Y he is dead. Brine him to the church.” I sat in the pulpit and his coming up through the aisle I felt »f blood. 1 told » people that day yig man had his virtues and a good many of them. He had his faults and a good many of them But if ¢} n in this audience who ia with let him cast the first stone at Id.” One one mde the puipit little child, rosy, sweet faced, as bea ful as any little child that sat at your table this momn- ing, I warrant you. She looked up wist- fully, not knowing the full sorrows of an orphan child This destroyed man was a Samson in physical strength, but Delilah sheared him, and the Philistines of evil companionship dug his eyes out and threw him into the prison of evil habits. But in the hour of his death he rose up and took hold of the two pillared curses of God against drunkenness and uncleanness and threw himself forward until down upon him and his companions there came the thun- ders of an eternal catastrophe. Again, any amusement that gives you a distaste for domestic life is bad. How many bright domestic circles have been broken up by sinful amusements! The father went off, the mother went off, the child went off. There are to-day frag- ments before me of blasted households. Oh, if you have wandered away, 1 would like to charm you back to the sound of that one word “home.” I saw a wayward husband standing at the deathbed of his Christian wife, and I saw her point to a ring on her fin and beard her say to her husband: “Do you see that ring?’ He replied: “Yes, I sbe it.” “Well,” said she, “do you re member who put it there?’ “Yes,” said he, “1 put it there.” And all the past seemed to rush upon him. By the mem- ory of that day when, in the presence of men and angels, you promised to be faithful in joy and sorrow and in sick- ness and in Fealth; by the memory of those pleasant hours when you sat to- ther in your new home talking of a right future; by the cradle and the joyful hour when one life was spared and an- other given; by that sickbed, when the little one Jilted up the hands and called for help, and you knew he must die, and he put one arm around each of your necks and brought you very near together in that dying kiss; by the little grave in the cemetery that you never think of without a rush of tears; by the family Bi- ble, where, amid stories Jd heavenly love is the brief but expressive record o births and deaths; by the neglects of the ast and by the agonies of the future; on a judgment day, when husbands an wives, parents and children, in immor- tal groups, will stand to be caught up in shining array or to shrink down into darkness—by all that I beg you give to home your best affections. Ah, my friends, there is an hour com- ing when our past life will probably before us in review. It will be our last hour. If from our death Jillow we have to look back and see a life spent in sin- ful amupement, there will be a dart that will strike through our soul gharper than the tr with which Virginius slew his child, memory of the past will make us quake like Macbeth; the iniquities and rioting through which we have will come upon us weird and skeleton as Mog Merrilies. Death, the old Shylock will demand and take the Remaining of flesh and the remaining drop o Pe and upon our last opportunity for re tance and our last chance for heaven he curtain will forever drop. 1:1 ike to, deathbed: 1 found ” ' . nlain} je 18 of me me saw here 8 Supt ihe!" y the God made “Don't He was too “brine him. He ie he was r that were him in 1 saw oTe 8 ANY N ut an this coffin of sat that | { A Question for the Barber's Unfon. At the next meeting of the Montreal may or may not be brought up for dis It is ewdent, however, that a serious infringement of the rights of the profession is involved, get shaved, his watch chain. “1 suppose,” said the barb:s, killed that bear “yourself?” “Yes, 1 did,” was the reply, “Was it a grizzly bear?” “It was.” “A big one?” “About the steer.” “Gee whiz! How many bullets did it take to kill him?” “Not any at all.” “Brain him with an axe?” “No, I talked him to death.” It took the customer 15 minutes te get the rest of his shave, and during that time the barber didn't speak anoth- er word. “you size of a two-year-old Just u Tom. “Here, Siegiried! Come, Siegfried.” “What a strange name a cat! Where did he get it?” “Why, il him that for we cal because he's popular in Thomas concerts.” Sweat and fruit acids will not discolor goods dved with Pursas Paversss Dyes, all druggists. 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Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers