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To which is added a Memorial Sketch of the REV. WM. MORLEY PUNSHON, D.D., LL.1>. l2mo, Cloth. Illustrated. 459 pp. $1.26. The Practical Test of Ciristiamty ; BEING THE SIXTli ANNUAL SERMON BEFORE THE THEOLOGICAL UNiOV OF VICTORIA COLLEGE. Pai>er Covers, . . .^ ^,^,^^_ THE ORATIONS OF JOHN B. GOUGH WITH ^luUlt of ^i$ gife. Paper Cover, 240 pages, ivitli a Portrait. Frice 30 Cents. CONTENTS. Sketch of His Life- Oration on Habit— Importance of tliP w^:::'n^'''''^^i^'i^'"^'^'''' *« chiiaren-^AdS-es to t : llnnl ^ <-la8ses-Ihe Dangerous Drinking Customs-The Evil of A dre^'^f n V "'P^'m"'' ?! ^T^^^ Influence-Address to Ladiel .Tl Pnnl! ! h V"""^ Men-Our Duty to the Intemperate- Are they all Fools who become Drunkards ?-Who is My Neighbour '-Pie ventjon Better than Cure-The Power of Example-The Liquor WM. BRIG«S, 78 & 80 Kiiig^ St. East, Toronto. < . W. ( OATES, Moulrcal, Que. s. f. HIKSTIS, Ilallfnx, .\.8. ; ■ff /f7 ISE: AST. Shall we or Shall we Not ? LL.l). ty: ICAL UN J OX A SERIES OF FI-ViEl IDISOOXJI^SES PREACHED IN THE PAVILION MUSIC HALL, BY THE H Cents. ie of the 5s to the le Evil of to Ladies Are they ir?~Pie- e Liq uor REV. HUGH JOHNSTON, M.A., B.D. TORONTO: WILLIAM BRIGGS, 78 & 80 KING STREET EAST. Montreal : C. W. COATES. Halifax : S. P. HUESTIS. 1886. 0. fax, i\.8. i JNTRODUCTIOK It is one of the highesf, functions of the pyipit, embracing, as it does, withir; the sphere of its in- fluence whatever affects the character and ( ,nditions of society, to so use its opportuniy vc ceach, that those who wait upon its ministrations s lall not be unadvised of the tendency and consequences of what- ever habits, customs or amusements find a place in social life, and are more likely than otherwise to be hurtful to health or dangerous to character. Nor are those practices to be excepted which, though under some circumstances not positively wrong, prove by experience their tendency to weaken the moral responsibilities of the unconverted, and hinder the growth of piety in the souls of believers. In the very nature of things, the pulpit must often find itself in opposition to customs and practices which prevail to a greater or less extent among those to whom it addresses its teachings, and with respect to which they are not predisposed to yield to its conclu- sions ; and in no case is this more probable than when it discusses those usages which are justified by # ^ INTRODUCTION. the example and opinion, of any considerable number of respectable people. Notwithstanding tl«s fa.t however, it is the duty of the minister of Chns to preserve a good conscience ir^his teaching as well as in his life. In view of this, the pew owes to the pulpit a fair and candid estimate of its utterances upon debatable questions, a. we.l as upon those about which there is little or no controversy. In the dis- cussion of the questions involved in the sermons em^ braced in this pamphlet, it will doubtless be conceded that the Author has taken no unfair advantage of h.s position, but has calmly and logically reasoned h.s way I the conclusions he has reached. The favor w,th which the series was received by the very large con- gregations before whom they were preached, and the Licitation of friends, have determined thexr pubhca- tion in the present fom, with the hope that they may ■ by wider circulation extend their influence beyond the sphere of the Author's own pastorate, and that ma.iy who have regarded as doubtful the practices these discourses condemn, may be awakened to the lurkrng danger which lies concealed within them all. S. G. Stone. Toronto, May 17th, ISSe. PREFACE. The following discourses were delivered to large con- gregations in the Pavilion Music Hall, Horticultural Gardens, during the alteration and enlargement of the Carlton Street Church. The thought of publishing them was not enter- tained by the Author until he was urged by many friends to do so ; and, even then, he would not have had the courage to print them, but that th*e questions asked are of vital interest to the Church and to the world. He has not aimed at originality, or freshness, or scholarship, but at simplicity and directness, and has tried to discriminate the true from the false. He has preserved the sermons in the free and familiar form in which they were uttered in spoken discourse. He has to acknowledge his conscious and uncon- scious indebtedness to many who have written and spoken on the subject of amusements. 6 PREFACE. The solenui ooiivictiou of the writer is that topics bearing upon daily life in business and pleasure and society are not sufficiently treated of from the pulpit, so that people are often left to rift without direction into the most dangerous currents of worldliness. He has spoken plainly and strongly, but with a tender regard for the welfare of his hearers, and the honor of Christ and His Church. He has not sought to please any but the Master, and to His loving-kindness and blessing the Author commends this little volume and its readers. 29 Alexander Street, Toronto, May, 1880. CONTENTS. SERMON I. SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT DRINK WINE? Food Offered to IdolB-The Ceremonial Law -A Universal Principle Action-Social Drinking Usages a Stumbling-block-The Law of Charity toward the Weak-Total Abstinence a Benefit • Phvsi- cally, Mentally, Morally-Thc Only Thing that can Check Intern- perance-^A Radical Cure -The Scott Act-Prohihition Needed- MeanwhUe Total Abstinence the only Help for the Drunkard- lll' w ^ "^P'^-APP*'^' to Members of Society- Churches. Parents, Women, the Young SERMON II. SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT PLAY CARDS? Sin of Gambling-Its Prevalence-A Violation of God's Law-De tT Tr'J".f '*7' ""^ "'"'*''• "' ^'•^P^'^^' 0' Morals, of the Soul-The Evils of Card-playing-Christians should not Engage in the Amusement-It is the Appearance of Evil-A Worldly Amusen.ent - Inconsistent with the Duties and Privileges of Chnstmns-Destroys Christian Influence-Card-pIaying Method- ists-Appeal to Heads of Households-An Incident-The Father's * SERMON III. SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT DANCE? Question of Amusements-Necessary-Luw of Amusements-" A Time Jo, -What the Scriptures Say-The Dance as Related to Health • PAOR 35 8 CONTENTS. fAOB to Expense — Social Tendency— A "School of Manners"— Effects on Mental Improveriient— Moral Aspects - Secret Charms of the Dance— Essentially Immodest — Why may not Christians Dance ? Condemned by all tho Churches— Dr. Palmer — Dr. Barnes— Be- longs exclusively to the World— Two Classes of Church-members — Dr. Brookes— The Ermine — Destroys Serious Impressions— An Idolized Daughter — Inconsistent with the Spirit of Christ— Why Object to Home Dances? and the "Square Dances?"- The Burn- ing of Moscow 65 ![ 1 SERMON IV. SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT ATTEND THE THEATRE? The Master's Test— Is the Fruit of this Social Tree Good or Evil ?— We m Speak of the Theatre as it is— Not of its Abuses— Must not Con- found the Sta^e with the Drajna— The Record of the Theatre— A Bad History — Reforms a Failure — The Matter of the Theatre Corrupting— The Manner of its Teaching Demoralizing— Manage- ment— Patronage of the Theatre— A "School of Morals "—Historic Reputation of Actors — A Costly School— A Call to Christians — Play-going is Dissipation — The Axe at the Root of the Tree 97 SERMON V. WHAT SHALL WE DO ? Some Suggestions as to Amusements— The Charms of Virtue — Religion has Pleasures, most Exalted, most Enduring — The Joys of Salva- tion — True Christians never Running after the Pleasures of the World — Tests which Religion Applies to Recreations— What She Offers to Childhood and Youth— Fashionable Revels — Innocent fireside Games instead of Cards— Physical Out-door Games Better than the Dance — Lectures and Readings instead of the Theatre — Concerts and Musical Entertainments— What of the Opera? — A Musical Theatre — Its Moral Tone— Indecencies of Apparel— The Ballet— Apology for Opera Going : can Hear the best Music with- out Going— Time to Draw the Line— Christianity an Enemy onlj' to Sinful Pleasures— The Angel of Joy— On the Niagara -The Honor of Christ and His Church 127 SERMON I. SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT DRINK WINE? " Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to oflfend." — 1 Cor. viii. 13. "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is ofiended, or is made weak." — Rom. xiv. 21. HE Apostle in this chapter from the Corinthians is dealing with the mat- ter of food offered to idols. He is urging his converts to abstain from the use of such moat. You know the nature of these idol- sacrifices. Animals were offered in sacrifice to idols, of which part was eaten by the offerer and 2 10 SHilLL WE OR SHALL WE NOT Ms friends at a feast, and the remainder sold j ,. ^^rket To these Christians rescued from rt: "--«-- ^^"^^;l::i.i; the meat they seemed to sanction « ■ ^ they abstained they seemed to say that an >dol J. real being, and so they gave a sancUon to .perstition. The Apostie says. ^We Unc^^^^^^^ an idol is nothing at all. . • • *ere is on y God and Father of us all, and one Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ." But while the more sound- winded Christians recognize that an idol god is Sing, there are others, still under the power of thei'r old pagan associations, who cherish the in^pression of the reality of the idol god^ These, induced by Christian example to eat yet trembling with fear for the imaginary guilt of reirown^ct, really «^e«.-^ and are thus "condemned or defaled. who know that idols do not exist it is bu common meat, but the weaker, owing to their ler intercourse with the idol and their con- tact with idolatry, look upon the mea while eating it as an idol sacrifice, and being thus em- DRINK WINE ? 11 boldened to wrong-doing, they fall from Christ and perish. Now, he makes an appeal to the strong. Will you use your strength, your know- ledge, your liberty to entrap a weak brother, wound his conscience, and sin against Christ ? The Apostle rises to the full height of self- consecration. It is sublime ; it is full of tender- ness for the souls of men ; it is the law of benevolence circumscribing our liberty so as to prevent injury to the conscience of another. ' Wherefore, if meat make my brother to oflfend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend." Now, I am here to say that this is the only firm and impregnable ground on which to stand in support of the practice of total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks. Men everywhere do what they see others do, and some will assuredly drink these beverages because we do. We know also that the moderate use of them develops very frequently into intem- perance, with its far-reaching and terrible con- sequences. Granted that it is lawful and M I 12 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT proper to use these drinks, yet, by reason of the evils that come from their excessive use, men should totally abstain. Though there be no personal danger, yet, because of others, not so firm of nerve or resolute of purpose, we should forego their use. The principle demands that we should deny ourselves for the purpose of doing good to others who are exposed to the ovil, ; iid who may be led, by our example, to take the first step on the road to drunkenness. This principle made Paul the noble man that he was, and was the key-note of his sublime career. So, in the Epistle to the Romans, we find that there' were certain converts from Judaism who still felt bound to observe the ceremonial law ; other converts, satisfied that that law was abolished, made no distinction whatever m meats. The former were offended by the prac- tice of the latter. Accordingly, the Apostle, from this matter of comparatively small moment, establishes a principle of action uni- versally binding in all ages and under all circumstances. He says, " It is good neither to DRINK WIN^ ? 13 eat flesh nor drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother sturableth, or is offended, or is made weak." Oh, that weak and stumbling brother ! Do the social drinking usages of the present time put a stumbling-block, or an occasion to fall, in the way of others ? Then, I must prac- tice self-denial for the good of others. Grant that I can safely tamper with the wine cup ; that I can take it in moderation, and be infalli- bly certain of its never hurting me. Very well. Dare I answer for my children and take the risk of their happiness for both worlds, that they will never suffer by my example, and, by everything that is solemn in death, judgment, and eternity, dare I give the guarantee that they will never use it but in moderation ? Having granted even that, can I say that the young and inexperienced, the weak and easily tempted, shall never suffer by my example, rendered all the mor». dangerous because seemingly so safe. I cannot. " No man liveth to himself." I cannot take it without the lisk of occasioning, uninten- tionally, though it be, injury to others— an in- ■TBMmBeiwiitii iijjw^ji wm :1 i 14 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT jury which may lead to the eternal ruin of my brother for whom Christ has died. Here, then, is the principle laid down by the Apostle — full of the noblest sentiment and loftiest piety. It is manly, it is Christian to abstain. The law of charity to the weak demands that I should abstain from whatever jeopardizes the souls of men for whom Christ died. Do you say, " Have I not a perfect right to drink wine ?" I even grant you that. But, is it not more noble to sacrifice the things we have a right to do than to insist upon our personal rights when it is to the injury of others ? These converts were boasting of their privileges and vaunting their liberties; talk- ing of rights, rights, rights, instead of doing duties. The Apostle says, "Abstain for the sake of love, lest your example lead weaker brothers to sin." Can any man with anything of the love of Christ in him — anything of the spirit of the Master — resist such an appeal ? Is it not better to deny ourselves something, even if we have a perfect right to do it, rather DRINK WINE ? 15 than cause the stumbling of others. This is the principle— that things not wrong in them- selves are to be given up, if our use of them hurts others. Carry that out and it would throttle the demon of drink, and dry up the mighty river of intemperance in a generation. Keep this principle before you, while I present some of the other pleas for total abstinence. You will be benefitted phyi>ocally by abstain- . ing. I know that it is claimed by the wine-bibbing advocates of indulgence that there are many phj^sical benefits accruing to the wine drinker. What magical virtues are ascribed to it ! In winter it warms you, in summer it cools you ; when wet it dries you, and when dry it wets you; when heavy-hearted it lightens you, and when light-hearted it steadies you ; when you are not hungry it gives an appetite, and when hungryil *a^es it away ; when weak it makes you strong, and when strong it makes you, stronger! All a mockery! It is not a food. Who says so? Scientists say so. There is not a 16 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE KOT Mi Ilii i physiologist of the day who does not admit that alcoholic drink passes from the stomach into the blood unchanged. It courses through the system, and not a particle of it is fit to enter into the composition of muscle, flesh, bone, blood, brain, sinew, hair, nail or skin, and it in at last cast out by the organs which carry off the impurities of the blood. It does not even produce heat, . but lowers the temperature of the body. Adam Hayles, the Arctic explorer, who got nearest the North Pole, did it without a drop of stimulant, and he was the only man that could draw the sledge during the last expedition. In the Greely expedition, those who outlived the combined rigors of starvation and Arctic frost were not users of intoxicants or tobacco. But, you say, if it does not help digestion, if it does not feed or warm me, it will surely strengthen me. False again ! It actually lessens your muscular power and wastes y^r vital ' force. By the testimony of over two thousand of the most eminent medical men of the world, alcohol is " not at all required in health, and its duink wine ? 17 use, even in moderation, injures the nervous tissues and is deleterious to health." It i espec- ially injurious in continuous muscular exertion. The athletes and great rowers when in training use no wine or whiskey. Ask Harry Gilmore, the fighter, when he has business on hand, if there is anything like cold waiter and dumb-bells. Ask Hanlan, when in training for a great aquatic contest, if there is anything like ab- stinence and exercise. Captain Webb swam the Channel, and Weston, the great pedestrian, walked his thousand miles without a drop of stimulant. Insurance companies find the risk on the lives of abstainers seventeen per cent, better than that on non-abstainers- lives. The total abstainers in England and America, who now number at least ten millions, are tie strongest and healthiest of men. Our second plea is that you will be benefitted mentally by total abstinence. Alcohol is particularly a brain-poison, and assaults the very throne of our manhood. It has the magical power to deceive with a temporary /•^ 18 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT brilliancy, but it is only a treacherous flash, for it deranges the entire domain of intellect. Sir Henry Thompson says, " That of all people who cannot stand alcohol, the brain worker can do so least." Sir William Gull says that it degenerates the tissues and spoils the intellect." Macaulay tells us that it ruined the dazzling intellect of Byron ; and we know that the brightest lights in the walks of literature, the bench, the bar, and the pulpit, have been quenched in this engulfing vortex of degradation and ruin. Our third plea is that you will be benefitted morally by total abstinence. The whole tendency of intoxicants is to excite the lower — the animal nature — and to neutralize the spiritual. Though many may stop short of being drunkards, yet drinking blunts the moral sensibilities, disorganizes the moral instincts, and enslaves the enervated will. Drink is one of the surest of the devil's ways to man, and of man's way to the devil. Intemperance violates both tables of the law, and with hands polluted with blood, and with unpitying heart pursues DRINK WINE ? 19 its destructive work. Nearly all our murders are committed under the infernal stimulus of drink. Booth had to stiffen his nerves with brandy before he could fire the pistol shot into the brain of the kingly Lincoln. Examine the official reports of our prisons and peniten- tiaries and asylums and you will find that drink furnishes more of their occupants than all other sources of crime and pauperism com- bined. Says Canon Wilberforce : " A leading judge of the Divorce Court has declared that nine out of ten of the cases upon which he has to adjudicate owe their origin to strong drink. The columns of the daily papers, the constant utterances of judges, magistrates, coroners and superintendents of lunatic asylums accumulate evidence that the most direct stimulus to crime, lunacy and pauperism is strong drink." The brothel uses drinking as the bait and stimulant of passion. Every house of infamy is a drinking house. It is the natural ally of wickedness. The Times, editorially, says: " There is not a vice, or a disease, or a disorder, or 20 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT a calamity of any kind that has not its frequent rise in the public house. It degrades, ruins and brutalizes a large portion of the British people." Its evils reach forth into a dark and hopeless eternity. No need to repeat to the wretched in- ebriate the fearful assurance, " No drunkard shall inherit the Kingdom of God ! " He feels it in his inmost soul. Hall from beneath is moved to meet him at his coming. The devils are so sure of him that they come up and gather around him, and he goes from his fiend-haunted death-bed into the black darkness of an eternity without God and without hope. Our foitrtk plea for total abstinence ia that it is the only thing that can check the progress of intemperance. We know how this destructive scourge reaches all places, all homes, all hearts; we know that the bill which intemperance presents every year to the British nation, and which it pays down in hard cash every three hundred and sixty-five days, is $650,000,000— two mil- lions for every working day — and that the DRINK WINE ? 21 results of drink cost annually $500,000,000 more ; we know that the producing power of English workingmen has diminished by one- sixth in comparison with other countries because of the excessive drinking habits of the people, and that in Ireland the sum annually spent exceeds the whole rental of the Island by $11,000,000, placing intemperance among the chief causes of Irish poverty and discon- tent ; we know that in this Canada of ours over 17,000,000 gallons are annually consumed, or nearly four gallons for every man, woman, and child in the Dominion, and that the cost of the traffic is over $11 per head of the population ; we know that drink is the disgrace of the nation, the cause of three-quarters of our poverty, and profligacy, and crime, tilling our prisons, and penitentiaries, and asylums ; we know of the thousands that are led as sheep to the shambles of this great destroyer — the husbands and fathers, robbed at once of their courage, their manhood, and their reason, and the poor suffering women, called wives, and helpless 22 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT I! ■ I'll'- li children, left neglected, and suffering, and deso- late. Now, this flood of intemperance has its origin from some source. Niagara is the overflow of the great lakes — Erie, St. Clair, Huron, Michi- gan, Superior — with their rivers and streams. To stop Niagara you must dry up these lake and river sources. What is the Niagara of intemperance ? It is the moderate drink- ing habits of society. None of you, 1 trust, have ever felt the ungovernable appetite of the drunkard. The late John B. Gough has often thrilled us with his description of it. It is a raging storm sweeping over the whole being — a maddening of the brain, a corrosive gnr.wing of the stomach — and this storm-fire as it rolls along thralls the will, sweeps down every motive, silences reason, stifles conscience, until the poor wreck, with crazed brain, and blasted nerves, and consuming fever, and throbbing heart, cries out, " I sell my soul and body, my reputation, my family, my wife and children, my best hopes, my Heaven, my God, my Christ, my all, for DRINK WINE ? 23 drink. I leap gladly into hell, with all its horrors, for drink; give me drink! give me drink !" How have men of intellectual power, and noble instincts, and true hearts, and amiable characters, plunged into such depths? You know, everybody knows, that the only way by which any man ever became a drunkard was by the continued use of drink— the frequent becoming the habitual, until at last he found that the appetite was uncontrollable— a disease, a passion, a devouring flood ; and, overwhelmed by it, tb- cry has gone up, " my God, too late ! too late ! " I want to say to those who advocate the easy kind of temperance— mo(iem^e drinking--tha.t this is the cause of intemperance. '• No," you say, " excess is the cause of in- temperance." I answer, excess is intemperance— the eff-ect and not the cause. This monster drunkenness will live as long as it is fed, and as well try to stop Niagara in its thundering, or to arrest the lightning of the skies, as try to stop the mighty stream of intemperance so long 1 24 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT as it is fed by moderate drinking. Intemperance begins long before the point of visible inebria- tion. The daily use of ardent spirits in any degree is intemperance. Hundreds of persons who are not drunkards, yet suffer the evils of intemperance that are not told by the trembling hand, or faltering tongue, or clouded brain, or stumbling feet. Allow me to lay down three propositions, the truth of wliich is self-evident. 1st. All moderate drinkers do not become confirmed drunkards. Some have taken liquor through a long course of years and are not drunkards — in the common acceptation of that term. 2nd. All confirmed drunkards were once moderate drinkers. That is where the evil began. They all tippled a little before they drank deeply. Thirty or forty thousand drunkards in our Dominion, and, though they are dying daily, the ranks are always full, and are constantly being recruited ! Whence come the recruits ? From the moderate drinkers; therefore, listen to my third proposition: 3rd. You, moderate '■''ia». DRINK WINE ? 25 drinker, may become a drunkard. Beware of the beginnings of evil ! Do you say, " There is no danger. I can stop when I like." I tell you there is terrible danger. You put yourself in awful peril. No danger ? You are lulling your- self in the self-confident delusion with which millions before you have lulled themselves. From the day that Noah " planted a vineyard and made himself drunk ;" from the days when the two sons of Aaron perished at the altar in their intoxication, numberless sons and dauo-h- ters of men have felt the fatal fascination of that " mocker " which first allures, then mad- dens, and at last enslaves and destroys. Are you any safer than all the drunkards of all past ages ? Many of them were men of keen intellect, noble instincts, and manly character. How did they become drunkards ? Were they born so? Did they become drunkards the moment they tasted strong drink ? Did they think, or even dream, of becoming inebriates ? No ! no ! There is only one way by which any 3 26 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT I ' H illll! 1 ll 1 ! ;■■ i man ever became a drunkard, and that is, by growing fond of drink. Here, then, is the radical cure of intemper- ance — stop drinking. We must do everything that can be done by way of legislation to crip- ple and prohibit the liquor traffic. Prohibition is the great end towards which we must all work, aiding and welcoming all legislation on the side of temperance. The Canada Temperance Act of 1878, known as the Scott Act, has been adopted in some thirty counties. It is a good restrictive mea- sure, if properly and efficiently enforced ; but the constituted authorities have not duly en- forced the Act where, by large majorities, it has become law. Open encouragement has been given to the violators of the law, and public confidence in the permanence of the Act has been weakened. It is much easier to suppress an evil than to regulate it. All civilized coun- tries have recognized the necessity of civil mea- sures for the suppression of this evil. They have been trying to regulate and restrain the DRINK WINE ? 27 liquor traffic by License laws, and with what result? Failure everywhere. Regulation does not regulate. The only legislative remedy for the evils of the liquor traffic is a law prohibiting entirely the manufacture, importation and sale of all intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes. The welfare of society requires such legislation. The liquor traffic is the enemy of law and order and civilization everywhere. The public sentiment of Canada will soon demand and sustain such a measure. If liquor is a good thing, let every man sell it ; if it is an evil, let no man sell it. The power that prohibits four hundred and ninety -nine men from selling it, can and should prohibit the five hundredth man from selling it also. Public sentiment is daily gathering force in this direction, and that sentiment must be crystallized into law. Let us raise the standard of prohibition and fight for it • But, meanwhile, as various suggestions are offered for the removal of this common curse, we offer an effectual panacea and a radical cure. What is it ? Total abstinence. It is the only Tf ! ! i I 1 1 28 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT help for the drunkard. It offers the only per- sonal security against the growing power of the drink habit. You can never become a drunkard if you never touch liquor. That is certain. Archdeacon Farrar says Cruickshank, the artist, offered $500 for proof of a violent crime com- mitted by a total abstainer, and the money remains to this day uncalled for ; and now the Archdeacon offers the same amount for proof of any one case, in the church or out of it, where drunkenness has been cured without total absti- nence. If a man say, " I can stand ; I have too much manhood in me to become a slave," I can- not share his assurance, when I know that every one that ever started on the drunkard's career did so in the same self-confidence. It is the only safe and effective example. If a man is fond of wine he ought to abstain for his own sake ; if he is not fond of it he ought to abstain for the sake of others. Of all the rose- water remedies for drunkenness the most pitia- ble is that of moderation. The people who extol this cheap and easy moral excellence of DRINK WINE ? 29 imbibing wine and brandy tell us that total ab- stinence is a much poorer stage of virtue than moderation; they tell us that moderation is a much higher and loftier virtue than total absti- nence. They say it is cowardly to fly from evil, as if it were wisdom and not madness to court temptation, forgetting that the wisest Teacher has commanded us to pray, " Lead us not into temptation." Noble patterns of self-denying virtue, these people who perform the heroic act of doing what they like because they like it. Let me address you as members of society in reference to its drinking usages. The despotism of custom ! In clubs, at public and other din- ners, in home entertainments, we yield to the drink curse, from fear of the taunt that we are unfashionable or inhospitable. Better stand by our principles, and our guests will respect us more in the end. As members of society, it rests with us to deliver a great " Yes " or " No " to the " Shall we or shall we not drink wine ? " If our conscience and reason tell us that this is a damnable beverage, then let us out with it for- 'i 'n m > \h 11 ! I 30 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT ever. Make no compromise with social customs that are wrong and injurious. Let parents pre- serve their home and family from this evil ! Are you a father? Take the side of total abstinence. You may save your son. At a wed- ding party,, where I had refused wine, the host, an old gentleman, rallied me before the company, saying that he could take a glass in moderation and enjoy it, while I could not. Poor, deluded man! One of his own sons, a most promising young man, had died a drunkard, and another, brilliant also, was on his way to the terrible abyss of destruction ! Are you a Christian ? Then, be a total abstainer. If you want to know whether total abstinence is a duty toward your God, a duty to yourself, a duty to your tempted and suffering fellow-men, just read the passages which I have taken as my texts : " Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend ; " " It is good neither to eat flesh, nor i iiill!!! - DRINK WINE ? 81 drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or made weak." Take it for granted, then, that there is no sin in a glass of wine; yet the law of Christian charity to the weak demands that I abstain from everything that can give serious offence, and the Christian who, for the sake of tickling his palate or of exercising his liberty, will jeopardize the souls for whom Christ died, certainly does not exhibit the self-denying spirit of his Master. Occasional drinking will do you no good ; entire abstinence will do you no harn.. It is manly ; it is patriotic; it is Christian. Destroy not him with thy wine for whom Christ died. That is not right ; it is wrong ; it is sin— sin against thy brother and sin against Christ ! Are you a wife, a sister, a daughter ? For the sake of female virtue and domestic hap- piness abstain! For woman's sake, suffering woman's sake, abstain, for who can tell the his- tory of the bleeding, starving wives, the broken- hearted mothers, the wrongs of children, the domestic sorrows and miseries caused by drink 1 I 'TT II I! nil i I I^^H 82 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT And you, queens of society, will you tempt others ? Will you put the wine j^lass to their lips ? Will you make it fashionable, or keep it fashionable, to drink ? When your friends are gathered in the parlor, woman, I entreat you for the sake of your brave and manly brothers, your noble husband or your devoted son, tempt no man by putting the dangerous cup to his lips ! Young man, become a pledged abstainer. You cannot afford to learn to love intoxicating bev- erages. They are not needful ; they are expen- sive, and, struggling for a place in the world, you cannot afford so undesirable a waste. They expose you to temptations and snares, or if not injured yourself, your example will injure others. It may cost you a laugh, and bring upon you an occasional sneer, but you take the right side, the manly side, and you espouse a glorious cause, a cause that will triumph, for if this Be a hope- less cause, then the cause of our Dominion is hopeless ; if this be a losing battle, then the battle of Canada is lost. But the battle shall be I P ill If iiiii DRINK WINE ? 8» won, and you will share the triumph. There- fore, to all the enticements of fashion, to all the banterings of comrades, to all the invitations of beauty to taste this " mocker," in the name of health, wealth, honor, virtue and example, every- thing dear in this life— in the name of your immortal soul, in the name of heaven, in the name of God, say " No ! " h\l lillllli '<\\ J '\r '1 I liiiiai SERMON IL SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT PLAY CARDS? "Casting lots." — Matthew xxvii. 36. HESE gamblers were the four soldiers that were guarding the Cross on which the Saviour hung in His hour of shame and weakness. In crucifixion the clothing of the victims always fell as perquisites to the men appointed to guard the execution. Little did they dream how exactly they were fulfilling Jewish prediction as they proceeded to divide between them the garments of Jesus. His under- *fT^ 36 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT !l! garment was found to be of one continuous * woven texture, and to divide it would have been to destroy it ; so they contented themselves with gambling for it. This done, they sat down and watched until the end, beguiling the lingering hours by eating and drinking, jibing and play- ing dice. Oh ! what a stupendous and moving scene in the world's history ! The suffering Son of God hanging in helpless agony upon the Tree ; His arms extended wide, and at the centre of each open palm a huge iron nafl forced through the quivering flesh and lacerated veins. Through each foot another was driven into the wooden cross. Around him were the coarse, idle, vulgar multitude, who had flocked to feed their greedy eyes upon His sufferings — the chief priests and scribes adding their re- "^ proaches and taunts to the jeers of the passers- by, and at His feet the heart) '^ss, heathen soldiers, unmoved by the sight of helpless anguish, with cruel indifference drinking and playing dice. I employ this text to set forth the sin and J';):sM'riii ii lliiii ■A' PLAY CARDS? 37 shame of gambling. The subject is of public in- terest and general importance. Directly or indirectly it strikes home to all. The father may think it of no concern to him, while his own son may be making the wild plunge into the fascinating snare. The business man may think that he is not affected by the evil, while his confidential clerk is losing money every night at the gaming table. Women may think this subject of no interest to them ; but, sisters, it concerns your brothers ; wives, it concerns your husbands ; mothers, it concerns youir sons over whom you have wept and prayed. Some of you may ask, " What is the use of lifting up your voice against these great evils ? You cannot stop them." But, by the help of God, we will warn the young of this Niagara, lest they be carried into the foaming, hissing, whirling rapids, and, shrieking, struggling, blaspheming, go over into the terrible abyss. There is some- thing always gained in rebuking sin. Whitelield and a pious companion were much annoyed one night at a hotel by a set of gamblers in an 38 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT adjoining room. Their noise and clamor so ex- cited Whitefield's abhorrence and pitying sym- pathy that he could not rest. He said, " I will go to them and reprove their wickedness." His companion remonstrated, but in vain. He went ; his words were apparently fruitless. Returning, he laid down to sleep. His companion asked, " What did you gain by it ?" "A soft pillow," was his answer, and he soon fell asleep. So, if we cannot stay this desolating tide, we must at least discharge our duty by uttering a faithful warning. I propose to dwell — I. Upon the sin of gambling ; and II. Upon the evils of card-playing. First — Gambling is playing any game of chance for property, or the risking of money upon a hazard. Two conditions are essential to gaming — hazard, and the want of an equivalent for that which may be won. Hence, gambling may be carried on without cards or dice. The speculator who deals in futures is gambling ; the dealer in fancy stocks ; the grain operator, who plays his " squeezing and cornering " game, is a mm It I PLAY CARDS? 39 The ; the who ivS a gambler ; and many a one too saintly to touch a pack of cards is wicked enough to use other people's money, risking, perhaps, the property of widows and the fatherless in reckless specula- tion. It is this hastening to get rich that is at the bottom of these swindling enterprises. The old-fashioned way of gaining a living by honorable trades, or of making a fortune by honesty and hard work, is too slow for this fast age. Lottery tickets are illustrations of gamb- linor. When I was in New Orleans last winter the whole country seemed deluged with lotteries. We have them in our very churches. Have you never been at a fair or bazaar, where some per- suasive young person has urged you to take a ticket in the hope of becoming the happy pos- sessor of some valuable piece of embroidery or handsome chair. That is Church gambling. Another method of gambling is the system of betting, which is not confined to the race-course ; but the most innocent amusements, as yachting, boating, and ball-playing are made the occasion of putting up wagers. It penetrates everywhere. !■ :'*i' 40 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT 8 W'!* Ml 1 ; " What will you bet," and " I'll bet you/' are continually heard expressions. Gambling is of ancient origin. The passion is universal, and every nation, civilized or savage, has its game. The Greeks and Romans played games of chance, and so did the ancient Ger- mans. Tacitus tells us they often staked their own persons and went into voluntary slavery to those who won them. Throughout all the Eastern nations gambling is common among all classes. I never saw anything like the gambling that prevails all round the shores of the Medi- terranean. On the castle-crowned promontory of Monaco is the world-famed gambling establishment of Monte Carlo. It is the fairest spot on the Riviera, and there vice is king. The Prince of Monaco de- rives his revenue from these gaming tables. There are grand hotels and lovely gardens, where the palm and the orange bloom, where the finest band in the world discourses the sweetest music, and great gaming rooms with their Moor- ish ceilings and fine paintings and beautiful PLAY CARDS? 41 decorations, anr'. at these tables the most ac- complished knaves in Europe ; men and women, brij^ht and j^ay, or hagi-ard and v^ile. All day- long the blinds are drawn, as if to shut out the light of day, and the dark work goes on, or the unwary are entrapped, many of them tempted to play just for fun, until the work of ruin ends in suicide. Christian England reeks with the abomination, from the famous races on Derby Day to the card playing about the purlieus of Piccadilly. On this continent it is almost a national recreation. In the Western and Southern States you see gambling everywhere. All our cities are cursed with it. Hardly a village is free from it. Not a young man but is exposed to this evil. In San Francisco infam- ous establishments are fitted up for the purpose. They are called gambling hells. They appear like an earthly heaven — gilded saloons, brilliant with marble, gold, and crimson, attractive with fresco and paintings, and all gorgeous surround- ings — the Paradise of gamblers. Public gamb- 4 42 SHALL WE OR ^HALL WE NOT ling is now forbidden there by law, but there are many of these gilded dens where men are engaged in " fighting the tiger," as it is called. In New York there are six thousand houses devoted to this sin, and it is said that seven million dollars are annually lost in that city over the gaming table. 1. Gambling is a transgressing of God's law. It is a violation of the eighth Commandment, " Thou shalt not steal." Gambling is obtaining property to which the winner has no rightful claim, although the loser does consent to the risk. It is almost invariably associated with fraud. " Which of the Ten Commandments does gambling break ?" asked a young man of his father. The reply was, "None in letter, but the whole law in spirit." The sum of the Com- mandments is, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." Gambling excludes all regard for God. The god of the gambler is chance. Here are transactions about which, if he be PLAY CARDS? 43 ever so anxious, he cannot pray, and over which, if he be ever so successful, he cannot give thanks to God. The gambler cannot love his " neighbor as himself." As well cry to the pitiless storm for mercy ; as well ask the hungry wolf to spare the tender lamb, as to ask feeling from the gambler's heart. 2. It is destructive of industry. The man who can make or lose a hundred dollars in a night soon gets disgusted with work — will no longer ply the carpenter's saw, or stand at the forge or the factory wheel, or measure goods or weigh out groceries. The Divine arrangement is gain by work, but gamb- ling is not work. Any trade or occupation that is .of use is ennobling, and commerce is carried on on this principle of mutual advantage. When you buy and sell honestly you give and receive an equivalent, so that on both sides there has been gain. But in gambling there is no mutual benefit. Gain to one party means loss to the other. The gambler gives nothing for that ■Iil >, 44 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT which he takes, and his whole life and being are at war with the industries of society. 3. It is destructive of health. Its intensity consumes. Midnight watchings, the sudden changes from one emotion to another, the hope of success, the fear of fail- ure, the pleasure of gain, the pain of loss, exhaust the whole system. What wonder that this practice has given thousands of patients to our hospitals, thousands of maniacs to our asylums, and thousands of tenants to untimely graves. 4. It is destructive of jproperty. It has brought down great establishments and wealthy firms, and scattered in a night the hard earnings of a life-time. Of those who play for money the ultimate gainers are very few. What instances there are of losses ! A young man with a fortune of $150,000 in less than two years lost every penny. Another young man on coming of age took possession of $600,000, and in less than three years was brought down to utter destitution by gambling. PLAY CARDS? 45 The story is told of an English gambler who lost in twelve months one of the best estates in the County of Northumberland. He then put up his horses and carriages and lost them, and went forth beggared. In this wretched condition he was recognized by an old friend, who gave him ten guineas to purchase neces- saries. He expended five in procuring decent apparel, and with the remaining five he went to a gambling house • and increased them to fifty. Then he returned and sat down with his former associates and won $100,000. But he lost it all and died a beggar in St. Giles. Driving in Montreal one day a gentleman pointed out to me a neighbor of his who had lost property worth $200,000, all by gambling. But, you ask, where does all the money go that is won ? It goes into brothels, and grog shops, and all foul places. The proverb is, ** lightly come, lightly gone." 5. It is destructive of morals. Tom Brown says, " Gambling finds a man a cully and leaves him a knave." What are the 46 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT abominations that accompany gambling ? — In- temperance, cursing and swearing, sensuality and avarice. What deceptions and dishonesties in dealing cards, like those practised by that " Heathen Chinee " ! A young man from the mines of California went into a gambling hell in San Francisco and won $20,000. But in the course of the play the tide turns — intense anxiety comes into the countenances of all. Slowly the cards come forth. Not a sound is heard, till the ace is revealed favorable to the house. There are shouts of " foul, foul !" But the keepers pro duce their pistols, the uproar is silenced, and $100,000 are swept off the table. It precipitates its victims into crimes of all kinds — forgery, robbery, murder, despair, mad- ness, suicide. I have no doubt that hundreds of dollars every week from our city leak out of merchants tills into this whirlpool. In Philadelphia a lady of fashion had formed a card party at her house, and when all were absorbed in the game the lady suddenly fainted and fell under the table. " Stay," said one, ■;. Mim^ PLAY CARDS? 47 "don't touch the bell, let us finish the game, she would have done so herself." The game lasted another half -hour, and when they rang the bell and called in the doctor he pronounced her to have been dead twenty minutes. The tender mercies of the gambler are cruel. This sin hardens ; it rends ; it blasts ! 6. It destroys the soul. Its steps " take hold on hell, going down to the chambers of death." The infatuated wretch is on the road to destruction, and no pitying voice of a friend, no wife's entreaty, no sister's tears, no mother's prayers can stay his headlong course. The infernal spell is on him, and he rushes to his doom. II. We turn from this sin of gambling to warn you against the amusement of card playing. Many people ask, " What harm in a pack of cards ?" " No more," they say, " than in a package of envelopes. And when no stakes are put up the play is perfectly innocent." There are card parties in professedly Christian homes. Would the Lord Jesus Christ sit down n V\t''-} 48 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT to such a game ? Mr. Romaine, being solicited to play at cards, made no objection, but when they were produced said, " Let us ask the bless- ing of God." " Ask the blessing of God at a game of cards," exclaim .he lady, " I never heard of such a thing." Mr. Romaine replied, *' Ought we to engage in anything on which we cannot ask His blessing." This ended the game. Now, I am going to offer a few reasons why, as Christians, we should not play cards. I speak f'-'^m a Christian pulpit, and address a Christian audience — men and women who have been baptized into the c • of redeemed man- hood in Christ Jesus — the disciples of one who pleased not Himself, and who has bidden us " to deny all ungodliness and worldy lusts, and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." If you are not a Christian, and do not wish to quit the wrong and do the right, or live for heaven and the good of others, then you might as well play cards and run after the world's amusements, as do any other of the devil's i!;i PLAY CARDS? 49 work. It* you say, " Young people mast have amusements," we answer. Yes, but not amuse- ments that are perverted to immoral uses, or mixed up with dissipation like card playing. If you say, " Young people will be kept out, and driven out of the Church by these strict views on amusements ; they must follow the tastes of fashionable society," I answer. If the privilege of playing cards keeps the young out of the Church they ought to be kept out, and if it drives them from Church they ought to be driven out. If men and women are to enter the Church to be worldly-minded professors of religion ; to be lovers of pleasure more than bvers of God ; to have the form of godliness, b fc deny the power thereof; to attempt the impossibility of serving God and mammon, sooner let His blood-washed Church be blotted from the face of the earth than that it should surrender its principles and go over to the enemy. The tide of worldliness is sweeping thousands to perdition, and woe, woe to the Church that does nol bear witness for the truth. 50 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT ill! I 1. My first objection to card playing is, that it is " the appearance of evil," and we are com- manded to " abstain from all appearance of evil." Cards are the implements of gamblers. Do you say, " It's only in appearance and not in reality ; they are only bits of paper w:th clubs and aces on their face." I answer. The appearance of evil is evil, and at the peril of your soul you are bound to abstain. There will be no sin committed by abstaining ; there may be by indulgence. They are recognized as at home in the dens of vice and shame, and in the hands of wicked men and women; and in the proportion of ten to one these people monopolize these games. They have ministered a thousand times more to vice and dissipation than to sweetness of temper, clearness of head, and purity of heart. I know that cards have cursed thousands in this world, and will curse thousands more, and God being my helper they shall never curse my children^ with my knowledge or consent, and if my voice can prevent it they shall not curse other house- PLAY CARDS? 51 holds. That is the position for any Christian to take. And as to there being no harm in the friendly rubber, when nothing is put up except the drinks or a few cents to add interest to the game. Well, what of "Progressive Euchre?" It is respectable gambling indulged in by respect- able people. As I understand it, the playing is for a prize, a valuable prize at one end and a booby prize at the other. Some friends in Detroit last winter were going to have a progressive euchre party,and three or four met together in the afternoon to practice. To give spirit to the game the lady at whose home they were took out her diamond earrings and laid them down. They were won bv another and she claimed them. That evening the husband was called in to remonstrate, but in vain, and, by way of consolation, said to his wife, " This is the last time I shall ever escort you to a progressive euchre party." Progressive euchre, rightly named, because it is the stej^ping stone to worse and more fearful departures from God. If i 52 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT il i! 2. My second argument is, that it is a worldly amusement. It does not spring from faith in Christ ; it does not strengthen our faith, and is not a part of Christian duty. It is worldly in its origin, worldly in its character, worldly in its associations, and worldly in its tendencies, while the injunction to the Christian is, " Be not conformed to this world," for "whosoever will be a friend of this world is the enemy of God." Now, if worldly persons and non-members of the Church want to play cards it is in a line with their professions, but Church members cannot play cards and gamble in their homes — that is, they cannot be Christians and do these things. The Christian is held by a higher law — the new life in Christ Jesus; and the man or woman that pursues the world just as eagerly as others who are purely worldly, may just as well confess that they are hypocrites, for the world knows that they are. You will ask, " What harm in a social game of cards ?" Why do you ask it ? Do you ever ask, " What harm in family prayer? What harm in going to PLAY CARDS? 53 prayer-meeting? What harm in visiting the poor and sick?" No. Why? Because you know there is no harm. Why do you ask the other question? Because you know there is harm. It is a questionable thing. A Christian that will not sacrifice the fashions, or so-called demands of society, for the good of others ; who says, " It is my business to enjoy myself ; I do not propose to have my life governed by the Church ; I propose to do as I please," is possessed of none of the spirit of Christ. A young fellow comes to the city. He is thrown into the society of professed Christians and invited to a home. He is asked to join in cards. He says, "Excuse me, my mother is anxious that I should never play cards ; she says that while the social game may have nothing essentially evil in it, yet the institution of the card-table is a dangerous thing in society." The Christian gentleman says, " Your mother is puritanical ; she is not familiar with the habits of the best society. You must learn to regulate your own conscience, and if you do w . 54 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT not do these things you will lose caste. People will laugh and sneer at you." Under this pressure he yields and plays his first game. What a fasci- natiqn there is in the game. He sees no harm in it now. He falls under the spell. Every nerve is thrilled ; his eyes flash ; the fire burns ; he is swept away by the habit and goes to ruin. The mother knew why she did not wish him to learn. Her own father had, through the card table, been led down to ruin, and now, unintentionally, this Christian gentleman leads the young man to the devil. Sketch the history of many a blackleg and it will be something like the following : — Learned to play cards at home, or at a neighbor's house ; at social gatherings, and at evening parties. Played only for pastime and a desire to be thought sociable. Love for it was gradually excited, and he began to enjoy a friendly rubber. He thought there was no harm in it, as the stakes were very small. The excite- ment increased. When a loser, he wanted to win back ; when a winner, he was ready to stake more. Attended a weekly card-meeting ; began i PLAY CARDS? 55 to play with strangers and for larsfer sums. Often out all night ; learned to drink ; to enjoy lewd jests and profane oaths. Playing now became desperate, and borrowing, thieving, rob- bing, and open crime were the results, and that once moral young man, the child of pious parents, is an outcast; and the gray hair that should have been honored and protected are brought down with sorrow to the grave. The idea of sacrificing for others is not a law of this world. Worldly people cannot appre- ciate it; worldly Christians cannot understand it. But I cannot be a follower of Christ and not be willing to give up a useless thing, the tendency of which is to evil. Unless the Bible is a fable, Christians are called to be " holy," " to be separated from the world," and if they are not known in their associations and companionships from the world, then are they Christians ? 3. My third argument is, that the card- table is utterly inconsistent with the duties, privileges, and tastes of true Christians ; that it destroys their influence, and is an injury to T i !l M' m 56 SHALL WE OR SHAL^ WE NOT those who are not disciples of Christ. If card- playing is proper for one Church member is it not proper for another ? it is proper for me, the minister, for my class-leaders and Sunday- school teachers. If it is not not proper for me it is not proper for any member. The Saviour claims from every child of God his love, his services, his self-denying consecration. Do these card-playing members have family prayer ? do they attend prayer-meeting, visit and pray with the sick ? Are they spiritually-minded ? Do they do anything that Christians ought to do ? How many genuinely-scriptural, devoted, pious men and women in this city play cards ? How many pure, earnest, consecrated, and self- sacrificing Church members play cards ? I tell you that you could sink every card -playing, wine-bibbing, dancing Church member into the bottom of the bay and not a church would suffer one iota spiritually by their loss. They may shine at social parties, and be leaders of fashion, but they simply count zero in the Church. It destroys their influence. Suppose that PLAY CARDS? 57 every member in the Church were like them, what kind of a Church would we have ? I am glad that the world thinks more of Christ, and more of Christianity, than to let Church mem- bers do as it does without throwing it in their teeth, and telling them to their face, "We believe you are hypocrites." Did you ever hear of a convicted sinner sending for one of this kind of Christians to inquire from him the way of salvation ? or of a dying sinner sending for one of them to hear from his lips the words of comfort and of- prayer ? Never ! It is a source of injury to those who are not Christians. It is not the lying, thievino-, and drunken members of a church that do most harm-~ever^ body knows that those things are bad — it is these amusement-loving members ; these respectable people who are in a tide of worldliness which paralyzes their Christian life, and makes people say, " There is nothincr at all in religion." The world after all has a con- tempt for those Christians who advocate card- !| ;. » M ■ pi' 58 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT playing and the like. It asks, " Why don't they keep their vows and promises made to God and His Church ? They have promised to renounce the devil and his works — the vain pomp and glory of this world. Why do they not do it ? " What a man does is the test of what he is. And the man who prays in his family, does his duty to God, and lives righteously before the community, does not do these things. For these reasons, have no feeling with the unfruit- ful works of darkness ; do not countenance them ; do not become an apologist for them ; do not aid or abet them. Take your stand for God and the right. Let nothing that has ever harmed a soul, or cursed humanity, be fostered in your home or by your example. Down with it, and out with it forever ! * This will not please some of you. Well, thank God I do not preach to please people who think more of their worldly amusements than of poor, tempted, perishing men ! Sorry mem- bers of any Church, they are. If you do not like what I have said, then you are wrong. If PLAY CARDS? 59 rbo lan lOt 1£ fe I have erred, it has been on the safe side, and I would rather keep too far from the world than go too near it. There is not one of you who will not say, as you are honest before God in the light of death, and judgment and eternity, the preacher is right, and you will have a thousand times more respect for the man who speaks out boldly and freely his reproofs, than for the man who will connive at the worldliness of his members, and allow them to go on as they please in their doubtful courses. There is danger in cards wherever they are played. They have but one good use. A young man that had learned to play bought a pack and showed them to an old player who had spent ijiost of his life in this senseless employment. He fingered them over familiarly and then said, "You had better go home and burn them." Such advice from such a source made a deep impression upon the young man, and he went and burned them, and never played again. Do you know that the flame of I 60 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT Methodism on this continent started from a pack of burning cards. Some backslidden Methodists (and wherever you find a Methodist playing cards you can set him down as a backslider) in New York were playing cards, when Barbara Heck caught up the cards and threw them into the fire, and said to one of the players, a local preacher — Philip Embury — if you do not preach to us we shall all go to hell together, and God will require our blood at your hands." The words went straight to his heart and he prayed to God for forgiveness, began to preach, and now fifteen millions on this continent call him blessed. My hearer, if you have a pack of cards I pray you burn them. Young man, my brother, stand back from the card table. Some of you are strangers to the play. Never learn— here is safety. Keep your hands pure. Keep them off* every instrument of gam- ing. Whoever asks you, saint or sinner, to take a game at cards, say No ! However polite or elegant the circle, they are doing the devils work. n PLAY CARDS? mark its course, and sprinkle mud or dirt along its path- way home, and when the little ermine comes to this mud and dirt it will lie down and submit to capture and death before it v/ill smirch or soil one of its snow-white hairs. child of the King, will you smirch your character as a Christian by joining in the dance ? (3) My third reason is that it stands in the way of so many becoming Christians ; that your indulgence will most likely lead you to make shipwreck of faith. How many say, " I would join the Church, but I cannot give up the dance !" They will stifle the convictions of conscience and dance along the way to ruin. An aged pastor tells of a young lady who had given up her gaiety, and set her face Zionward. In an evil hour some of her former associates called on her to accompany them to a ball. She at first refused to go, but with persuasion and ridicule they prevailed, and with a desper- ate effort to shake off her convictions and regain II 86 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT t her former security, she exclaimed, " Well, I will go if I am damned for it !" She went, the blessed Spirit withdrew His influences, and she became the victim of despair. Then came the wan and sunken cheek, and the ravages of death. The pastor called to visit her, and proposed prayer. The word threw her into an agony. She utterly refused. No entreaties of friends, no arguments drawn from the love of God, or the Saviour s pity, could shake her resolution, and she went out of life into the blackness of dark- ness. In a beautiful town was the home of an only child of a wealthy man. She was the idol of her father. Graceful as a fairy, dancing was her passion. Frail of body and feeble, yet she would dance, while with one hand she had to support her aching side. New Year's came, and she was gaily attired for an evening party. She danced with her suitor, the fairest of the fair. Midnight came, and heated with da-ncing she sat down at an open window and breathed the chill winter air. Just then, the minstrels struck up a live- DANCE ? 87 lier strain, and seizing her partner's hand she rushed again upon the floor, and in a moment was the wildest dancer there. The music grew stronger, the revelry wilder, until an unearthly shriek rang out in that place of mirth, and the fairest of the dancers fell senseless in the arms of her partner. They bore her to the window with the blood pouring from her mouth. They chafed her temples, and sought to restore her. At last she opened her eyes upon the anxious faces around her, and said, " I have danced my body into ihe grave and my soul into hell," and breathed her last. The dead body was carried home, and with that form there went into the mansion of the rich father a more awful woe as he remembered the last words of his idol-child. She had gained pleasure, but what consolation, what remuneration, to dance a thousand times and then go to perdition ! The amusement is wholly inconsistent with the spirit of Christ and with a spiritual state of mind, and to be mingling with the unconverted in their pleasures, and running after amusements 5 ! ° II 88 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT i.i ! Ill Ii ■I is to prove that we either never were Christians or have sadly fallen from grace. It requires neither good brains, good morals, nor true religion to be a good dancer, and you might as well look for buds and flowers with the atmosphere at zero as for great dancers among eminent Christians. A young lady of high social standing was hopefully converted, and decided to join the Church. Before doing so, she went to the pas- tor, and asked : " If I join the Church, have you any objection to my dancing ? I am very fond of it, and feel very unwilling to give it up. What do you think of it?" " I will answer your question by another," said her pastor. " Suppose there was a large and fashionable party or a public ball in town, and you were invited to it. And suppose you had accepted the invitation, and that, going at rather a late hour, as you entered the room you found all engaged in the dance, and that you saw me, your pastor, taking part in it, and lead- ing it, what would you think ? " fc DANCE ? 89 A look of surprise, almost of astonishment, passed over her face, as she frankly said, " I should think it very strange, and greatly incon- sistent." "Well," replied the minister, "if dancing is right and a good thing, why should not I enjoy it as well as you ? And if in its influence and tendencies it is wrong and evil, why should you engage in it or wish it more than I ? A minis- ter is but a good man trying to do good to men. And there are not two standards, one for him and another for the members of his Church ; not two rules of Christian living, one for you and another for him. If he is ^o be spiritual, and set a holy example, and to come out from the world and be separate, and shun worldly amuse- ments, why are not you ? And if such amuse- ments are right and proper for you as a follower of the Saviour, why are they not for him ? And why should you, or any member of the Church, wish to be or do what you would not like to see him be or do ? " She thought a moment seriously, and then 7 H Mi Aii .<&n. %. ^:v> %'^, O^. \t>^\% IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) J//. {■/ V O w, to fA 1.0 I.I 1-50 IIIM III 2.5 IIIM i^ 2.0 i.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ^ 6" — ► & 'm / ^h "cr-l •el 0%. .> /I' r W/ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872 4503 Qr 90 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT 41,1 III said : " It is plain to me now. I will never dance again." And she never did. There are some who say, " We admit all that you have said about the round dances, but why do you object to the square ?" Simply because the square dance cannot be kept square, but is sure to be rounded off at the corners with the waltz. I know of homes where Sir Roger de Coverly was introduced simply for the children, but he soon galloped in all the others. The round dance is just what the fashionable world will not have discriminated away, and those who want to be fashionable in the Church will adopt the same loose views and practices. Others say, " We admit the evils of excess ; but why object to private parlor dancing ? " Simply because it sanctions the dance in other places. Strike a rattle-snake on the head wher- ever you find it ; but you say, " Cut off the head of the big rattle-snake, but only the tail of the little one." That is just where this evil is intrenched. You consent to the dance and then fix the boundary if you can. As DANCE ? 91 Bishop Mcllvaine says, "The only line to be drawn is that of entire exclusion." If the pre- vailing tendency of the private parlor dance is to evils of the same character that we all con- demn in the more public and promiscuous form ; if the relations of the more private and the more public be such as to compromise the one with the other, how can I countenance the one while I admit the evils of the other ? It is best never to begin a doubtful practice. And for Christian paren'os to introduce the dance, the cards and the wine glass into the home to make it attractive for the children, is just to create an appetite that may lead them to ruin. What a sugar-coated pill of poison ! O ! the anguish of the father when his drunken boy says, " You gave me the first glass of wine," or his gambling son, " You taught me the first game of cards," or of the mother, when the daughter says, " It was dancing at home that led me into this folly and ruin." A spiritual mind cannot seek enjoyment in worldly society. All this trouble comes from wanting to be like others and follow fashion. 92 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT lilii i Society is insincere aud hollow, is In the service of the god of this world ; and to deny the blessed Lord wlio bought us with His blood, ruin our children, lose all communion with God and be- come worldly-minded professors of religion for the sake of society, is to plant a thorn in our dying pillow, and not only imperil the souls of others but our own immortality. I know the difficulty of parents from the pressure on every side, but Christian firmness with Christian character, and an intelligent, reasonable setting forth of all these doubtful tendencies and abuses will keep the home pure. It may cost something of prayer, something of effort and of tears to keep back your child, feverish after worldly pleasures, and wake up the better and purer nature ; but, father ! mother ! these cords will draw, and one glance of your re- deemed child in heaven, one hour's sweet con- verse there, will overpay you all the toil, and anxiety and restraint of your often unwise parental indulgence. My hearer, are you still unpardoned and ^w* DANCE 1 93 unsaved. Then the dance is no place for you. How can you make merry in your sins when the noose is about your neck and the drop is under your feet. The pious Hervey once travelled in a railway coach with a lady who was speaking of the pleasures of the dance. "Pray what are they madam ?" "Three, sir- pleasure before in anticipating pleasure during it in enjoyment, and pleasure after in retracing it." "You have omitted one more yet to be realized, madam." « What is that, sir ?" " The pleasure' which the retrospect must afford you when laid on a death-bed." The truth pierced her heart, and she lei^ the dance forever to those who care not how they may die. 5rou have all heard of Napoleon's campaign against Russia in 1812; the evacuation of Moscow and the burning of the city while occupied by the French troops. The very night of the conflagration a military levee was held in a deserted pakce, in the vault of which was deposited, unknown to the officers, a large quantity of gunpowder. The scene was t^ 1'. IjI 94 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT i i„ brilliant one, and tho gayest were tliere. Dur- ing the revelry the fire rapidly swept on, and time after time they would leave their amuse- ment to watch the march of the flame- demon. At length the adjacent buildings were on fire, and the necessity for leaving became apparent to all. They prepared for rapid flight, when Carnot, an officer, young and brave, waved his jewelled hand above his head and exclaimed, "One dance more and deflance to the flames!" The enthusiasm was caught up and from lip to lip the cry went forth, " One dance more and defiance to the flames!" The dance recom- menced, high swelled the music, fast fell the footsteps of dancing men and women, when suddenly they heard the alarming call, "The magazine's on fire! fly, fly for life!" They stood transfixed with horror. They knew not that the magazine was there, and suddenly the vault exploded, and with the shattered build- ing the gay revellers fell. My hearer, the eternal flames are rolling on. Before you is death, judgment and eternity. I'fi'i Dance ? 95 Will you dance on while at any moment the magazine of the universe may explode, and amid a burning world the Spn of Man appear in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory ? We preach Christ not as pleasing men, but God, and call you to holiness of heart and life, " for the grace of God that bringeth salva- tion hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." "m ! in SERMOlSr IV. SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT ATTEND THE THEATRE? ♦• For the tree is known by its ixxAV —Matt. xii. 33. UR Lord here proposes to test things by their results. The tree is back of, or antecedent to, the fruit and determines its character; the heart is back of the life, and moulds it. Everywhere the law holds good: "By their fruits ye shall know them." We ought to bring the keen edge of this truth to bear upon every [aspect of society. 1™!' I '^liil 98 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT And it* ever this solemn utterance of the Master should be brought home to men in all relations of life it is now. The mightiest social forces are in the white heat of action. Institutions utterly demoralizing are in full blast, and broadening the sweep of their influence. What of the thea- tre ? Does it do good or harm ? It is very popular and daring in its claims for attendance and support. Its monster hand-bills stare us in every conspicuous place. The columns of daily papers give enthusiastic notices of theatrical performances. Picture-galleries and shop win- dows are filled with the photographs of star actors and actresses ranged side by side with eminent statesmen and divines. Let us apply the test of our text : — Is the fruit of this social tree good or evil ? The theatre is a tremendous power for good or harm — which ? We are all interested in the answer. As fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, professional men and business men, members of society and Christians, we are in- terested. If it is for good, let us stand by it ; Hi! iP! ATTEND THE THEATRE? 99 and let ministers and class-leaders and deacons support it, and take their families to enjoy its advantages. If it be evil — hostile to public virtue, pernicious and corrupting in its in- fluences — then, every dght-thinking man and woman should denounce it, forsake it, and have " no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness." In discussing the question whether we shall or shall not attend the theatre, let me say — (1) It is with the tb" i.tre as it is, and not as it might be or ought to be, that we have to do. The institution must be judged by what it is and not by what some one imagines it might be made to be. It must stand or fall by what it can do for itself. The ideal stage is out of the question. Apologists seldom defend the stage for what it is, but theorize about the possibility of making it contribute to the advancement of morality. But the theatre is not a time-reform- ing but a time-serving institution. As a well- known Chicago manager says, "The popular taste, whatever that be, must be gratified, if theatres 1 t li 100 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT are to exist." It must always, therefore, come down — it must pander." Yet Mr. Henry ^ v'mg, in his famous Edin- burgh address on " the stage as it is," said, " The stage is intellectually and morally to all who have recourse to it, the source of some of the finest and best influences of which they are re- spectively suceptible;" and in saying this, he declared he was speaking "not of any lofty imagination of what might be, but of what is, wherever there are pit, gallery and footlights." That is clear enough language. Some theatres are worse than others, but wherever there are pit, gallery and footlights, theatre-goers " get the finest and best influences " from them. (2) Nor are we speaking of the abuses of the theatre. There are attendant evils upon trades and professions. There are bad ministers, dis- reputable doctors, lying merchants and trades- men, but never in sufficient numbers to make these occupations disreputable. There are at- tendant evils upon the press, the schools and our very churches ; but good is their natural and ATTEND THE THEATRE? 101 general effect, and evil the incidental. Now, we say of the stage, that it docs more harm than good —that good is the incidental, evil the natural and general effect. The Church has always stood opposed to the theatre. Why? Because the stage has always been inimical to virtue and a school of immorality; that is its natural outcome. You cannot call drunkenness a proof of the abuse of dramshops. That is what they exist for— to make drunkards. You cannot call desolated homes, burning cities and fields covered with the slain, the abuse of war ; so you cannot call the evils clustering around the stage in its regular operation its abuses. And so, with Pollock, we have to say : "The theatre was from the very first, The favorite haunt of sin, though honest men- Some very honest, wise, and worthy men- Maintained it might be turned to good account ; And so perhaps it might but never was. From first to last it was an evil place ; And now such things are acted there, as make The devils blush ; and from the neighborhood. Angels and holy men, trembling, retire." (3) Nor must we confound the stage with the m .■Is- 102 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT drama. The drama belongs to literature and must be judged by its literary and moral char- acter. The stage is only one mode of teaching the drama or a very small portion of it. Why ! the book of Job is a drama ; Solomon's Song is a drama; so are Milton's Comus, Samson Agonistes and Paradise Lost. Many of the choicest gems of literature are cast in dramatic form. They are read and studied by thousands who never think of entering the theatre. Dr. Johnson maintains that even Shakespeare's plays are the worse for being acted. John Foster says, "No question can be more easily decided than whether it be lawful to write and read useful and ingenious things in dramatic form ; but it is an altogether different question whether the stage is a useful mean:^ of entertainment and moral instruction." So difterent a question is it, that the stage may be as injurious as the drama is beneficial. The theatre, then, cannot take to itself the credit of the drama, and it is misleading for our dailies to give reports of theatrical entertain- ments under the head of the " drama." ATTEND THE THEATRE? 103 The author of " Obiter Dicta/' in a very able article on Actors, says, " Our dramatic litera- ture is our greatest, and ^,he study of such works by the actor might have been expected to produce great intellectual if not moral results. But what are the facts— the ugly, hateful facts ? Why, despite this great advantage, the taste of actors, their critical judgment, has always been and still is far below the average intelligence of the day." He instances Salvini, who thinks as the result of his study of Shakespeare that the sleep-walking scene ought to be assigned to Macbeth instead of to his wife. The devotees of the stage have taught us nothing. The actor is Art's slave and not her child. Actors first ignored Shakespeare, then mutilated him, and now in their heart of hearts they love him not ; for with a light step and smiling face our greatest living tragedian flings aside Hamlet's tunic and Shylock's gaberdine to revel in the melodramatic glories of " The Bells " and " The Corsican Brothers." He says, " Irving may act Hamlet well or ill. but behind his and every- i Ivs'i ; 104 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT body's Hamlet, there looms up a greater* than them all— the real Hamlet." He accounts for this bad taste by the fact that for the purposes of an ambitious actor bad plays are the best. As far as the drama is concerned, our gratitude is due to men of letters, not to actors. If it be asked. What have actors to do with literature and criticism ? I answer. Nothing, and that is my case. Yet you will hear the dude and dudine talking about going to enjoy the drama. The creatures would far rather hear "Mother Goose." I. Consider the record of the theatre. The stage has a history which stretches over twenty- five centuries. What record has it made for it- self ? It arose among the Greeks, from the choral songs and dances with which the feasts of Bacchus and Venus, confederate devils of intem- perance and lust, were celebrated. At first the stage was a perambulating cart, and the actors were mountebanks and clowns. Then came Thespis introducing tragedy. iEschylus carried the Greek drama upward, and Sophocles w^as the ATTEND THE THEATBE ? 105 ancient Shakespeare. Under Euripides there came a more degenerate taste, and more loose morality ; and the comedies of Aristophanes ex- - hibited at once the depravity of the poet and the libertinism of the spectators. Solon, the great law-giver, prohibited them as pernicious to the popular morals. Plato said, " Plays raised the passions, and were dangerous to morality." In the days of Roman virtue and prosperity the theatre was prohibited; but as the nation plunged into excess theatres flourished, until in the days of Nero they were covered with gold. Ovid advised their suppression, and Cicero and Seneca charged them with having produced the extravagance and lewdness and debauchery of the age. The early Christian Fathers thun- dered against them as works of heathenism and sc?iooL^ of debauchery. The same course of de- generacy marks the dramatic representations among the Hindoos. In China and Japan, women er^. not allowed to perform. The Euro- pean stage grew out of the " Mysteries of the Middle Ages," a sort of sacred drama, and the ' 8 jum 106 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT " Moralities," which had to be suppressed, for " Faith, Hope and Charity " would stagger across the stage in a state of intoxication. Addison and Steele condemn the loose diversions of the English stage. The stage ministered to the profligacy of the times of Charles II. of Eng- land, and of Louis XIV. of France. "Before the ' reign of terror,' five or six theatres sufficed for Paris, but when the nation rejected God and set up a prostitute as the * Goddess of Reason,' " says Burke, the historian, " twenty-eight theatres were in full blast, and crowded every night. Amid the gaunt and h»ggard forms of famine, the' yells of murder and cries of despair, the song, the dance, the mimic scene and buffoon laughter went on as in the gay hours of festive peace. At night the brutal outlaws crowded the theatres to witness representations of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and in the morn- ing turned to the congenial work of butchering babes and innocent girls." The American Congress, just after the Declara- tion of Independence, took action against the ATTEND THE THEATRE? 107 theatre as productive of idleness, dissipation, and a general depravity of principles and manners. Do you think an institution which has so disgraceful a history should be patronized by those who have any regard for the decencies of home and the puritiec of religion ? " Oh," but you say, " there has been a great reform since then." Reform! Where? It is well known that in every city of Christendom, where the standard of morals is lowest, theatres thrive best. To- day the director of the City Prison in Paris says, " When a new play of vicious character is put upon the boards, I very soon find it out by the number of young fellows who come irto my custody." A fine record that for a school of morals ! The Lord Chamberlain of England is now doing his best to abate the evils of theatrical exhibitions that are a disgrace to an enlightened country. What of the American theatre ? Let actors and managers themselves speak. Mr. Palmer, the Madison Square man- ager, says, " The bulk of the performances on I*- 1 108 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT I, I i the stage are degrading and pernicious. If the unwholesome craze goes on the imagination can hardly paint a picture vivid enough to do justice to the stage of ten years hence." Mr. Bandmann, an actor of thirty years, says, "I unhesitatingly state that the taste of the present theatre-going people of America, as a body, is of a coarse and vulgar nature." In Chicago, this institution openly tramples on the Sabbath, with scoff and revelry, and caricatures everything holy. What of our own city? About a year ago the mayor was called upon to suppress the indecent performances that disgraced the Grand Opera House for nearly a week. A short time ago Rhea gave a play that was a direct assault upon virtue, and that crimsoned the cheek of every virtuous woman in the crowded audience. One of our dailies complained bitterly of the outrage, and ven- tured the assertion that hundreds would not again be found in the only place where such an insult could be offered, viz. :— the theatre. Yet when the actress returns she is petted and iiiiii »)!' i, i ATTEND THE THEATRE? 109 praised as before. People soon accustom them- selves to these things; they must not be too punctilious. The stage is the disseminator of evil. It is "the devil's chapel— the stronghold of the god of this world." The theatre is an institution — not an indi- vidual. You have to take it as a whole. Why, one-half of its show-bills are an offence against decency. Shall Chrititians give countenance to an. institution whose characteristic features are an offence against purity, against religion, and against God. II. Look at the matter of the theatre, and we say "No" to the question, "Shall we or shall we not attend it ?" Its plays are largely trashy and corrupting. Here we have little to say against the legitimate drama, though even Shakespeare wrote things that are not the purest. There are plays like "Hazel Kirke," "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "Rip Van Winkle," "Rosedale," "The Two Orphans," "Edgewood Folks," Bulwer's "Richelieu," "The Lady of Lyons," and others, that have nothing in them I ( ; if J ii 110 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT immoral or indelicate. But what about '* Patience," " The Pirates of Penzance," '' Led Astray," " Camille," "The French Spy," "Mazeppa," "Frou-Frou," "Adrienne Lacou- vrier," and the fetid and unwholesome rubbish that makes up three-quarters of the exhibitions of our first-class theatres. Dr. Binney declares that there is not an adequate number of perfectly unexceptionable plays in the world to constitute a sufficient stock for a single company of virtuous actors. The clean plays are like Gratiano's " two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff." That whole class called seventh commandment plays are demoralizing in the highest degree, and just as " Pendragon " hinges on adultery, so these plays turn on criminal passions, and as the result murder, abduction, and marital infidelity abound in society. Adultery is bad enough when arraigned for punishment before our criminal courts, but it is a thousand times worse in its demoralizing effects when set forth on the stage. This is why theatrical representa- jiiiiii ATTEND THE THEATRE? Ill tions are in their very nature degrading. The stage can never be made a mirror of Christian sentiments and morals. It is the active pas- sions that must be represented in plays, and so Dumas replied to one of his critics, " You would not take your daughter to see my play. You are right, but let me say once for all, you must not take your daughter to the theatre at all. It is not merely the work that is immoral, it is the playing. The theatre being the picture and the satire of social manners, it must be immoral, the passions and social manners being them- selves immoral." Do you say, " We have gone to the theatre and have heard nothing but good ?" We have acknowledged that there is occasional ^ood. But have you attended regularly the theati^ and never had occasion to blush ? never had an unholy desire stimulated ? What are its effects upon the regular attendant ? Here is a business man in want of a confidential clerk. He goes to the theatre and sees a young man deeply absorbed in the play. This young man makes applica- 1" 1' 1 112 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT I • tion for the situation. The business man says, " I saw you last night at the theatre ; are you often there ? " "0 yes, every night," he answers. Is that business man likely to take that regular theatre-goer as his confidential clerk? Anybody that is honest will admit that the vast majority of plays are bad and unwholesome; and taking it for granted that once a, week a play is put upon the boards tha no one can take exception to, yet does not every instinct of our better nature, and the voices of reason and Scripture, say, It is wrong to cross the threshold of an institution three- fourths of whose influence is pernicious and poisonous ? III. Look at the manners of the stage, and we say " No " to the question, " Shall we or shall we not attend the theatre ?" The teaching is not only corrupting in its matter, but also in its manner. Its work is to gild vice and fling contempt upon the religious faith and morality of every age. In our day it is corrupting public manners and public morals through the eye. Its ATTEND THE THEATRE? 113 very advertisements are an appeal to lust. It makes our young people at home with almost absolute nudity. What is the idea of exhibiting young women, not only improperly but inde- cently clothed — so clad that to the eye of the audience they seem, and are meant to seem, almost naked ? Does any one need to be told why ? Simply to breed lust and furnish candi- dates for the brothel. I would like to ask some of 3'ou admirers of scantily dressed fairies in pink tights, how would you like that form to be your daughter, your sister, your wife ? Yet she is somebody's child, somebody's sister. Think of professing Christians — men and women pro- fessing godliness — redeemed by Christ, and cul- tivating purity, patronizing and sanctioning such things. IV. Again, look at the company that gathers in and about the theatre, and we say " No " to the question, " Shall we or shall we not attend the theatre ?" The average character of theatrical attendance shows that Christians should not be found there. I suppose that in almost every 114 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT I i i! M I i ■ I i« i 1 ;« m I m ifil .. if] !i i^ 1 I! theatre you will find the good and virtuous. Some go to see for themselves, some go as critics, some admire tragedy, and some go to enjoy the farce. Some go to see a famous actor or beautiful actress. They delight in the splendid acting, and they sit through the ballet and other inde- cencies. But we speali now of the regular theatre-goers. Thieves go there, and gamblers go there; jockeys and spendthrifts go there; dissipated men and fallen women. You will find such characters occasionally at a church, a concert, or lecture, but you will always find them at the theatre. You will find some of the most respectable classes there, but if you want to see the very cream of codfish aristocracy go to the theatre. There they are — men with swallow- tail coats and white cravats , pompously showing their watch-guards and shirt-fronts; won en with dingy gloves, red and white opera cloal s, tawdry head-gear, and showy jewellery. You will generally find some of the well-to-do classes there, but if you want to see the very froth of the middle classes, go to the theatre. ATTEND THE THEATRE? 115 II There they are— fancy men, clerks that spend a good deal more than their wages, shiftless trades- men, and home-neglecting women. You will generally find some of the decent poor there, but if you want to see the very scum of vicious poverty, go to the theatre and you find them— rowdy and riflf-raflf, bully, black- guard, billiard-sharper and gambler, bar-keeper and loafer, wife-beater, gin-guzzler, lecherous men, and fallen women. The jmtrons of the grog-shops are the patrons of the theatre always. The patrons of the brothel are the patrons of the theatre always. The patrons erf the gambling-hells are the patrons c»f the theatre always. Is it not strange that the very worst classes of society are its most frequent attendants? Yet it is a school of morals ! What kind of school is that which draws together the aban- doned, the swindler, the forger, the swearer, the (scoflTer, the courtesan and the paramour ? When you see turkey-buzzards and carrion birds con- gregating, be sure there is a carcass near ; and ii ■ 116 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT where you see such characters swarming' give that place a wide berth. The play a " School of Morals !" Then how is it that the teachers so seldom learn their own lessons ? You know the historic reputation of actors and actresses. But you give the stock answer — " Ministers are often guilty of immor- ality." . Yes, and they are at once expelled from the pulpit. But fancy Irving and Terry being tried on the well known rumors of improper rela- tions and silenced by the play-going public. Let a scandal affect a public school-teacher, and he or she is at once dismissed. How is it that actors and actresses can set at defiance all the laws of morality, can live in scandalous and admitted wickedness, and lose not one iota of popularity ? Understand me, there are virtuous actors, no doubt, but what I am making out is that im- morality is no disqualification for the profession of an actor. A " School of Morals !" Rather costly teach- ing. When Bernhardt was in Montreal, one night's receipts were enough to have run half -a- ATTEND THE THEATRE? 117 dozen of our smaller churches for a whole year. Elssler, the famous dancer, received $1,000 a night, and after a short engagement in one city- received a present of $57,000. Another received $60,000 for fifteen weeks dancing in this school of morals. The receipts of one of the Chicac/o theatres often rise as high as $7,000 for a sint^Ie o performance. Pretty costly teaching of mor- ality that! The patronage of the theatre involves a foolish expenditure of money, and so leads to one or other of these results— poverty and crime, or debt and dishonesty. In conclusion you will observe that I have made no denunciations. I have applied the touchstone of our text and tested the theatre in the light of history, of reason, of Christian morals, and of common sense. I judge that no true Christian will sustain any amusement whose spirit and tendency are contrary to the spirit and tendency of pure religion. When Church members— really converted, faithful in Christian work, punctual in class and prayer meetings, laboring in revivals, and giving evi- IHI: 9r. 118 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT M' dence of high religious experience — assure me that theatre-going does not tend to destroy their spirituality, but helps them to live nearer to Christ and heaven, then I shall say, let the Church give up its ancient and constant opposi- tion, and let preacher and actor be folded, like David and Jonathan, in loving embrace. Mean- while, we ask every spiritually -minded person to help stay the flood-gates of sinful amuse- ments that are sweeping over our homes, and paralyzing the Church's power and usefulness. If ever the Lord Jesus Christ needed witnesses — holy, consistent, self-denying, cross-bearing disciples — it is now. You have taken upon you baptismal vows to renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of this world, and the carnal desires of the flesh. You cannot find the world, the flesh, and the devil more fully incarnated and embodied than in a low-class theatre. Granted, that you never at- tend any but the best, and granted that it has no dissipating or demoralizing effect upon your life ; that it does not interfere with your love ATTEND THE THEATRE? 119 and zeal for Christ, your deep and holy com- munion with God, your family prayer and earnest work for the Master; yet if others, by your occasional going, are led to patronize an institu- tion whose general effect is deleterious and hurtful, I ask you, " Will you not, for Christ's ^sake, deny yourself, and for the sake of weak 'and easily tempted men, avoid the very appear- ance of evil ? " The world expects better things of us than it does of its own. A Church member and his wife in a strange city went to hear, on a Saturday evening, a famous actor. They overheard another say, sneeringly, to his companion, " A pretty place, I should think, for Church members to be on Satur- day night." He did not refer to them, for he pointed to another part of the house, but it was no less a home-thrust. They could not stay it out, but left filled with the humiliating sense of how easy a thing it is for one of Christ's little ones to become a stumbling block, and an occa- sion of offence. A young man was dying, and sent for an old 120 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT i ^ ', II Sunday-school teacher to see him, and then charged him with the ruin of his soul. He said that some time ago he had seen him enter a theatre and had followed his example, saying to himself, that if a Christian could do this he could. It was the first step on his downward road, and now amid the billows and breakers of death, he charged upon this evil example the ruin of his soul. I could enjoy a Shakesperean play as well as anyone, but, rather than that I should give coun- tenance to such an institution as the theatre ; rather than that my influence and example should lead to the going astray of any young person ; I say, rather let a mill-stone be hanged about my neck and let me be drowned in the depths of the sea. Moreover, I hold that no man or woman that has anything of the spirit of Christ can take any other attitude. O fathers and mothers ! give your lives to bet- ter, nobler, and purer things than theatre-going. I tell you the theatre has ever been the sworn and bitter foe of the home circle. Exclaimed a ATTEND THE THEATRE ? 121 mother in anguish, "O that theatre, that theatre ; my son was a good, kind boy, till that proved his ruin." While the Tremont Theatre, Boston, was being turned into the Temple, an old man tottered in and was overcome with emotion. A workman came to support him, and the old man said to him, in great bitter- ness of soul, " Oh, I was thinking of my two sons that were both ruined here." Will you sanction anything that will curse and despoil your home ? Did you ever hear of a father or mother saying at the last, " I am sorry I never attended a theatre." Never ! An Alpine guide, a great mountain climber, as he was. struggling along a mountain side once heard his son call out, "Father, keep in the safe path, for your little boy is following you, your little boy is following you." Will you lead your boy to ruin ? Keep in the safe path, for he is following you. Young lady, let me warn you against the theatre. It will give you a taste for what is frivolous, and worldly, and anti-Christian, and a distaste for what is pure, spiritual and Christ- 9 » ' I- 122 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT iW' 11 ii 1 i 1 1 1 \ \ ' \ 1 i like. Many go there to stifle their convictions and kill out their spiritual feelings. Get a taste for it and you will go if the young man who escorts you has to steal money to pay his theatre bills. And I tell you this : you will be made no better by watching these plays of criminal passions by females of easy virtue. Can you take pitch into your hands and not be defiled ? Can you take fire into your bosom and not be burned ? Young man, go to the lazar-house of the plague, go to the small-pox hospital, but go not to these carnivals of lust. Do you say, " I am a regular theatre-goer, and I never saw or heard anything objectionable ? " Your moral sensibilities must have been sadly blunted. You see nothing ob- jectionable in " Camille " and " Adrienne Lacou- vrier," recently played in our city by Modjeska ? One play the glorification of a harlot ; the other a direct assault upon society, for it js sustained throughout by two adulterous liaisons. You see nothing bad in these ! Then so much the worse for public virtue and decency ; as if vice and vile- ATTEND THE THEATRE? 123 ness were not public enough without being flung, with sound of music and scenic attractions and splendor of genius, into the face of thousands. Do you say, " I take the good and bad to- gether because of the good ? " That is, you buy an obscene book because of a little moral teaching scattered here and there through its pages, so that the good is made to serve the bad. Young man, you cannot afford to have moral assassins stab your purity, and if you want to keep pure, then be willing to lose your right hand rather then let it open the door to the theatre. Do you say that you want some amusement for your overworked brain, and that by carefully inquiring into the character of the plays that are offered, you can avoid the bad? Well, now, wouldn't you rather choose a road that wa^ clean all the way than go picking your steps through a road of filth and dirt ? I would. And as to recrea- tion, you do need so much more than you get ! The time hangs so heavily on your hands ! Why 3$ I 'ii- I 124 SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT not say frankly that you like the theatre ? The footlights, the shifting scenes, the music, the glitter of gaudy forms, the magic curtain — all come as an enchanting dream to youth. Your thoughts become feverish ; existence becomes unreal; you hate the sober, the practical, the useful, and become enamored of the extravagant, the sensual and the impure. " There is more hope of a fool than of such a one." Play -going is dissipation. It does not renew or refresh, but stirs the blood, sets the passions into wild tumult, rouses the brain into feverish activity, and produces a mental intoxication. God forbid that I should abridge the innocent pleasures and enjoyments of any one ; but " Good Lord deliver us" from feeding on the " husks that swine do eat." My friends, you and I are hasten- ing to the bar of God. Behold ! at the door are death, judgment and eternity. How will you meet them ? Will tragedy meet death, comedy meet judgment, and farce meet eternity? I charge you, by the hopes of happiness and heaven ; by the memory of a mother's love and a I ATl'END THE THEATRE ? 125 mother's prayers ; by the mercies of God ; by the constraining love of Christ; by the power of the Holy Ghost, cease to do evil, learn to do well. "For the axe is already laid unto the root of the trees : therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." .!• SERMON \^, WHA T SHALL WE DO? (( Her ways are ways of pleasantness. "—Pror. iii. 17. E have before us the attractive charms of religion which the inspired penman d(isignates by the majestic title of wisdom. And how appropriate is this name chosen by the Spirit of Inspiration. Wisdom— which consists not merely in intellectual know- ledge or worldly prudence, but in the perform- ance of duty in shunning the paths of sin and walking in the way of righteousness. Wisdom— for only '• the fool hath said in his heart there 128 WHAT SHALL WE DO t is no God," and only folly declared, I desire not the knowledge of His ways. And this pleasant- ness is not set forth as one of the charms but as the charm, the pectdiar excellence, of piety. " Her ways are ways of pleasantness." Happi- ness or pleasure is the great end of existence. Every heart is panting to gain it, every foot is pressing to reach it, every eye is searching to behold it, every hand is open to grasp and possess it. Here, then, is the strongest motive to a religious life : it secures us that which is, so far as we ourselves are concerned, the aim of every action, the very end of being. That pleasures, real substantial pleasures, are to be enjoyed in this world we cannot doubt. Our Creator has endowed us with faculties whose exercise affords pleasure. He has placed us amid objects adapted to these faculties, and we do grievous injustice to the bountiful Donor of our mercies to suppose that these powers were never made to be employed, these desires never given to be gratified, these objects never placed here to be enjoyed. Yet, sad to say, we seek not the WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 129 heat pleasures but the worst ; we go not to the pure fountains, but to the corrupted stream ; we follow not the dictates of reason and the way- marks of heaven, but the guidance of passion and the objects of sense. We prefer the pleasures of ain to those of obedience. But pleasure worth the name is to be found alone in virtue's path. O that the world would hear and heed this truth— that true piety is the only dispenser of real unmixed delights. The prexailing notion is that she is an enemy to enjoyment id inter- feres with our rational pleasures. There is nothing so pernicious to virtue as this foolish idea, that whatever joys and rewards she may point to in the future she has but few pleasures for her votaries and friends in the present life. Would that we could impress this truth upon you, that there is indeed no rigorousness and austerity, but real solid lasting enjoyment in the service of the Lord. Religion comes not to banish gladness from the heart, but to heighten its joys. She comes not to destroy our appetites and passiciis, but to exalt and restrain them; for, if 130 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? like the physical elements, they are beneficent in their offices when watched and kept under ; but unguarded and ungoverned, they are ruthless and destructive as the fire and the storm. She comes not to take away our aflfections, but to elevate and purify them by fixing them upon higher and worthier objects. She comes not to strip the heart of its humanness, but to enlarge it; to root out all selfishness and give it a kindlier and more ardent glow. She comes not to destroy one element of our being, but to give health and soundness to the whole man ; to renew our nature — to take away the carnal and impure, and give a relish for the pure, the spiritual, the divine, the immortal. In further pursuing the subject under consideration, we observe : I. Religion has pleasures. II. These pleasures are of the highest kind. III. They are the most enduring. I. Religion has pleasures. (1) The Word of God declares it. " Her ways are ways of pleasantness." "Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 131 "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord." '• Her servants take pleasure in her." These are not the un- holy pleasures of the world, for " she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she Hveth." Nor yet the pleasures of sin, but pleasures of her own, and they wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction who employ such passages as those we have quoted as a license to join in the follies and vices of the world, to indulge in sinful excesses or trifling vanities unworthy the man and unbecoming to saints. (2) And not only the Word but the people of God declare that religion has pleasures. David cries, " Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased » The early Christians rejoiced with a joy that was " unspeakable and full of glory." Have you not met with those who possessed a depth and richness of experience that surprised you, and did you not feel how high and holy was the spring of their joy ? There is not a Christian in the world who will not acknowledge 11 w i -' f u l|! 132 WHAT SMALL WE DO ? that he is happier with religion than without it, that he is happy in proportion as he is holy. You may say, perhaps, they are mistaken. Well, dees not a man know v/hether he is happy or not, whether he enjoys himself or not ? You give him credit for sincerity, and if he is not allowed to go to his own experience where else cen he go? (3) Nor is it a valid objection to religion that the sinful man does not enjoy these pleas- ures. A brute could not enjoy the pleasures of an angel, any more than an angel could enjoy the pleasures of a brute. There must be adaptation of the nature and faculties to the objects. Light must be adapted to the eye before there is sight, food to the appetite for taste ; so there must be a suitableness between our own dispositions and the objects of religion. The drunkard enjoys a spree, and sees no pleasure in temperance, but there is pleasure ; the epicure sees no pleasure in moderation, but there is pleasure. So there are pleasures in religion which the carual mind cannot enjoy. WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 133 Would you talk of dainty meats and delicious fruits to the man without taste? Would you talk of music to the man without hearing? Why, the very choir of heaven might flood the air with ravishing harmonies, but the thunders' crash and the angels' song would be alike un- heeded. Would you talk of beauty to the man without sight ? Why, over him might stretch the blue sky, with its midnight pomp or noon- day splendor, and under him the green earth, fragrant with deep grass and tinted flowers, around him flit forms of loveliness, and he never dream of the world of beauty amid which he is placed. So would you talk of religion's pleasures to the man of uncrucified flesh and unsanctified habits! Her pleasures are of a spiritual nature and can be enjoyed only by those " who are born of the Spirit," and have a relish for spiritual things. Remember, she starts with a new heart, and her pleasures are the enjoyments of that new nature. It is a " rejoicing in the Lord." Not that there is no relish for the innocent gratifications of this life. i 134 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? The Christian does enjoy the blessings of health, plenty, friendship, society, and homeJ he can play with his children and enjoy life in earnest. He can drink the exhilarating cup of earthly joys, not drugged and embittered by sin, but sweetened and purified by grace. He shares all the happiness that this life can offer, without drawing from ignoble sources ; without stealing joys from hell; while over and above this he has a nature which rises heavenward, and tastes pleasures unknown to the world and above the reach of the world. As a lighted candle when plunged into a jar of oxygen will blaze up more brightly, so the commonest joys are transformed and ennobled by religion, and the very water from earth's cisterns is changed into the wine of the Kingdom — " wine, new and strong," making glad the heart of man. Reli- gion, then, has pleasures. II. The pleasures of religion are of the highest kind. Our nature consists of matter and spirit, mind and body mysteriously joined. Each of these two natures possesses peculiar properties ; WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 135 while between them subsists a mutual relation- ship and constant interchange. Both are sus- ceptible of pleasure. The appetites, which take their rise from the body, minister to the pleas- ures of our lower nature. The remainder of our active principles spring from our spiritual nature, and claim affinity to the skies. Now, the pleasures of the mind are as infinitely superior to those of the body as niind is superior to matter ; for while the one is chained to earth, to low and sensuous objects, and confined to kind, the other is capable of drinking in the endless, immeasurable joy of the universe. In- deed, as the body is but the vehicle of the soul, and is subservient to the soul, so also should be its pleasures; and he who does not allow his lower nature to be governed by his higher, de- grades his manhood. These lower principles were made only for occasional indulgence, and always under the guidance of reason and with- in the limits ol the Divine law; but when reason and revelation are spurned and we yield ourselves up to their clamorous demands, we ^ m i 136 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? I- wallow in embrutedness and sacrifice the most permanent enjoyments for the meanest gratifi- cations. Now, we do not say that there is no pleasure in gratifying these lower propensities. There is pleasure. The dog trailing at his master's feet, the horse basking in the sun- beams, the seal sleeping on his island-rock, the bird nestled in the branches, have pleasures, but they are of the lowest kind. The pleasures of sin are sensual pleasures. They are emphatic- ally of the earth, earthy, and the sinner's only care is to heap about him the means and appli- ances of sensuous gratification. The Christian's pleasures are chiefly spiritual, but he has higher bodily pleasures than even the sinner. While he does not place his happiness in the pleasures of sense, he has them, nevertheless, with their proper restraints. He takes his appetites as the badges of weakness, needful to a certain extent, and in infancy the sole objects of attention ; but he feels that while it is proper for the child to suck its toys and be absorbed in them, the man should outgrow the playthings of childhood, and WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 137 of not be dependent upon them for his happiness. The carnal pleasure-taker lives for these alone, and in this respect he is a baby. But worse' than this, he is a transgressor also, and seeks to enlarge the sphere of enjoyment beyond the limits prescribed by nature. But by a law of our being, the sensibility of pleasure decays in proportion as the cravings of appetite in- crease. These cravings are increased by indul- gence so that the greater the indulgence the less the pleasure from indulgence. Who does not know this law ? Moreover, the man who yields to his passions yields to tyrants whose strength he knows not, and is driven by them as by a whip of scorpions into abysses of misery and guilt. His ungoverned appetite will be satisfied though health, honor and the dearest ties of life lie in the way. Have you not seen it ? A man under the almost irresistible influence of intem- perance or sensuality will gratify his passions though their fires consume his very being, and though all he holds dear on earth-honor, character, friends, wife, children, home-go down 138 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? on their knees before him to forbear. These are the pleasures of sin. There is true pleasure alone in the proper indulgence of these lower principles, and such pleasures belong to virtue and obedience. But we go to the higher part of our nature — the mind, boundless in its graspings — the soul, immortal in its being. Sinful pleasures cater to the lower nature ; the pleasures of religion are the pleasures of our higher being. Take the commonest laboring man ; sit down and talk with him about his business, and if you are better informed seek to develop out of some- thing with which he is familiar some higher thought or principle, and what a chord you strike within, what new joy you give him ! Your little boy goes to school, and drudges away, but does not know how to study. By and by he makes a plunge at some problem and conquers, some irksome lesson, and triumphs. He has got the key to knowledge, the way to study has dawned upon him. Why, he feels larger at once ; he walks with higher head ; he WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 13§ says, "I can learn now, I can learn anything." Before, he used to fail, he was down among the dunces ; he always needed the next boy to help him. Now he goes up in his class ; he scorns to be told ; he wants his teacher to ask him ques- tions ; he has learned the pleasure of thinking • he can grapple with ideas and make them his' own. These are like the pleasures of religion for they are pleasures of the immortal being.' pleasures of the soul and of thought. The mind not only receives its impress but its very cast and character from the objects with which it is conversant. How noble, then, how sublime the pleasures of that mind filled and pervaded with the magnificent revelations of the Gospel— the wonders of the Godhead, the mysteries of redemp- tion and the glories of futurity. Is not the proud eagle the king of birds as he lifts himself from his rocky eyry and far nbove the storm-cloud rises that he may bask in a flood of light and renew his youth in the bright beams of the unclouded sun ? And is not he the king of men who-rises from low and grovelling things to the 140 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? : i ! ;1 glories of the invisible world, whose soul follows from link to link the chain of truth which binds the universe to the Eternal Throne, nor stops until it folds its wing and veils its face in the unapproachable light and presence of the God Most High. And ! the pleasures of such a soul in communion with the Divine. Are there delights in the creature ? Then, what ravishing joys must be found in the Creator, who is the Well of Life, the Fountain and source of all pleasure ! What a " fulness of joy " w be found in Him who is the Life and Light of men, and what waves of glory must break o'er the soul bathing in the sea of His all-sufficiency and rejoicing in his over-flowing love! It is his also to contemplate God in all His luorks. In the sjm, emerging from the gilded gates of morning, he sees the burnings of Deity ; in the stars of night the outshining of His glory ; in the music of the zephyr and the melody of the song-bird the whispers of His praises ; in the surging of the sea-wave and the echoing clash of clouds, the thunders of His voice. ' WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 141 i The pleasures of the world are like its honors, all fleeting, and it is all summed up in the words of Cardinal Wolsey, in Henry VIII. : " So, farewell to the little good you bear me. Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness ! This is the state of man : to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope ; to-morrow blossoms And bears his blushing honors thick upon him : The third day comes a frost, a killing frost ; And-when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a ripening— nips his root, ^ And then lie falls, as I do. I have ventured * Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders. This many summers in a sea of glory ; But far beyond my depth, my high-blown pride At length broke under me, and now has left me, Weary and old with service, to the mer^y Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me. . Vain pomp and glory of the world, I hate ye : I feel my heart nexv opened. how wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors ' There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to, That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, More pangs and fears than wars or women have • And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again. " But religion opens up a fountain of sweet water in a briny and turbid sea. The pleasures of the world will have bitterness in the mouth 142 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? — however sweet at first; the pleasures of religion are lasting and perpetual : they are heavenly fountains, Divine wells in the desert of life. Religion thus transfigures common things and makes the whole earth full of His glory : — *' Earth's crammed with Heaven, And every common bush alive with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes. " III. These pleasures are the most enduHng. T^e pleasures of sin are only for a season, they are limited in dur>»tion. The pleasures of reli- gion belong to th ijher nature and are there- fore lasting as that nature. They are not the pleasures of sense, but of the soul — the immor- tal being. The joys of earth are very fleeting : " As well seek mellow grapes beneath the icy pole, Or blooming roses on the cheek of death," as lasting pleasure in earth's changing things. I think it was Xerxes who offered a large reward to the man who would invent a new pleasure. Lord Chesterfield said, " I have run the silly round of pleasures, and have done !; WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 143 with them all. Those who have seen only the outsides always overvalue them, but I have seen all the^ coarse pulleys and dirty ropes which move the gaudy machine." Take the recreations of life, and relicrion offers more rational and better amusements than the world. True, we are in the midst of a strong reactionary current, and the church takes larger liberties than of yore with certain forms of amusement that belong exclusively to the world. Many have made up their minds to have certain liberties, as they call them, no -matter how improper or unspiritual. They want to be and do like the fashionable world around tliem. Others yield to the current with hesitation and discomfort, while a few are alarmed at these looser views of practices, as full of incon- sistency, a hindrance to piety, and a stumbling block in the way of winning the world to Christ. In the midst of these questionings there are great general principles, at once scriptural and rational, that govern both work and play. The Church exists for what purpose ? Why, to show 144 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? the life of Christ among men at once strong and beautiful, and divinely pervaded, by " whatso- ever is true, and pure, and lovely, and of good re- port." Amusements have their place, but instead of fighting the devil with his own weaporn, and throwing Christian presence into the midst of worldly amusements, some of which are impure and cannot be purified, it is for the Church to set a fashion of its own, true to nature and the gospel ; using the world as not abusing it, and doing all things to the glory of God. Religion applies its tests to amusements just as it does to human life and conduct everywhere. To be lawful they must recreate and increase our capacity for work. There must be discretion and a due regard to expense. Above all things, they must be free from the taint of impurity. Every good man will avoid and condemn any amusement which, though harmless in itself, has become connected with immorality. As a matter of pure ethics, the Christian has a right to do what any man may rightly do, or go anywhere that anyone may rightly go ; but he stands WHAT SHALL WE DO ? I45 also in relation to others. " No man liveth to himself." Having liberty to do all things that are lawful, there comes in, also, the higher law of regarding the weakness and frailty of others. See what religion offers to childhood, the age of romp and play. It is the pleasure-time of life, and the cry of the children is for a few simple and harmless materials, and they will manufacture their own amusements with suc- cess and satisfaction. But these fashionable children's parties ! Is there anything more mon- sitrous or absurd ? To set them aping our bar- barous fashions by decking them put in kids and finery ; going to them at a time when they ought to be going to bed ; choosing their part- ners and stuffing their little stomachs at an out- landish hour. The whole thing is preposterous ! To banish the simple and natural, und put children upon the stilts of fashion to ape the manners of the full grown. Why, common sense, let alone religion, should teach us to wash our hands of such stupidity. As to youth. See what religion offers at a r m^^mnmrmi^fmm 'm 146 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? time when play begins to sink into the back- ground and work to come to the front. There are the athletic sports, the nerve-bracing and becoming out-door plays, the well-regulated concert and profitable lecture-room, the harmless fireside games, diverting and entertaining, which throw a charm around the evenings at home, and which are free from late hours and feverish excitements. Religion says, " Go here, go there ; enjoy this, and that, in the highest liberty and with the greatest measure of blessedness, but when any amusement is carried over from re- creation into dissipation, or linked with any- thing immoral, it is time for anyone who means to respect the laws of God, whether in nature or His Word, to quit, and not only to quit, but take his family out of it, and, with his friends, seek a more wholesome diversion. But this brings us to the question, "What shall we do for amusements?" The cry is, " Give us a substitute for those things which you have taken away. If we are not to drink, or play cards, or dance, or attend the theatre, what are WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 147 we to do?" As if there were not sweet, and mirthful, and healthful recreations enough without these objectionable ones! As if the world would die of ennui if these things were banished from the earth forever ! I have dis- cussed this question entirely from the Christian attitude. One thing is certain, if the Church had set her own fashions as to recreations instead of taking them as they are and con- forming to the world, we would not find so many of her members in the wild chase after the world's amusements. Millions upon mil- lions of Christians with brains and culture enough to be able to say what is proper in the way of amusements, for childhood, youth, and adult life ; what is in accord with right reason and faith, right taste and morals, without obey- ing the high behests of fashionable life in the most godless centres of Christendom ! We have objected to card playing because cards are the tools of gamblers, and because the play leads, to immoral uses of these games in immoral places. But are there not games of r ^mmmmmmmrmm w i X4b WHAT SHAIX WE DO ? Authors, and fireside games by the dozen, that will do good like a medicine, and give refined enjoyment without any demoralizing taint ? We have objected to the dance, as running to dissipation and exposures dangerous to health, and, in some forms, revolting to true delicacy and propriety. Sam Jones calls these round dances nothing but "hugging set to music," and an army officer, on beholding for the first time a round dance, said, " If T should see a man ofier- ing to dance with my wife in that way I would horse-whip him." But many cannot enjoy amusements without a dash of wickedness in them, like the French woman who, holding a glass of water in her jewelled hand, exclaimed, " Oh, if it were only wicked to sip that water how sweet it would taste." So it is the spice of sin that sweetens the dance ; but if it were banished forever from our parlors, must we sit down and fold our hands demurely as if there were nothing left. It is only a phy.sical exer- cise between the sexes. Have we not plenty of physicial sports ? There is croquet, and ball, WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 249 and ,aw„ ^nnis. and sailing, rowin,, skating, and what not. * What of roller skating rinks ? I believe they are often vicious and unhealthy. Have you e t „, ,,i, i„,„^„^^ ^^ ^^^.^ ^^^^.^^^^^^ a«soe,at,ons and surroundings. Well, persons and the plague, and have survived; but I pre- fer hving away from those districts. What of our w.nter sports ?-all good, except where they are dangerous to life and lin.b. We have had a number of serious injuries this season from tobogganmg, but we will need some first-class funerals to dampen the craze over this danger- ous amusement. We have ruled out the theatre, but in its place we have tableaux, lectures, and readings from men and women as talented as often appear on the stage. A friend of mine, of hought and culture, said, ■• I admit your objec- tions, against the theatre, but why can we not re/orr^ >t?" Because that is i.npossible. The effor. has been tried and failed. Qarrick tried 150 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? it, but did not succeed. A committee of the British Parliament, after full investigation, re- ported that the only way to reform the theatre was to burn it down. Three of the principal theatres of Philadelphia started with reform and the standard drama, but soon degenerated. In Boston the same — the managers resolved to have no bar-room near, and to keep out the abandoned, but soon had to confess that under such regulations the theatre would not get an audience if the admission were free. In New York Wallack's and Booth's started as reform institutions: so also the Park, and Broadway and Niblo's. You know the result. Niblo's introduced the Black Crook, and tried to introduce the Passion Play, to represent on the boards of a theatre the sufferings and death of the world's Redeemer. The stage cannot be re- formed, because it is just what its name imports — acting a part. Men and women who act Any character soon have no character of their own. You have heard of the crazy clergyman, who, to hasten the world's conversion, hit upon WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 151 the happy expedient of reforming the devil. His plan was to baptize him, take him into the Church, make him subject to its discipline, and this, he thought, would leave the world open to to the Gospel. The theatre is attractive to the majority of its attendants on account of its evils. Get rid of these, and the crowd would run rival institutions under the old monopoly. There never was a time when the theatre had so much patronage from professing Christians as now, yet the theatre is getting worse and worse, as we all know ; the grade is downward, and it gets deeper and deeper into the mire. It is as much as the Church can do to attend to its own insti- tutions, and the world does not want it reformed. The only way to reform an evil is to destroy it. The theatre is an old, lumbering mode of propa- gating insitruction that is entirely superseded by the press and the spread of books. What do we need of amusements in this way, when we have all the lighter forms of literature, fiction and poetry for our leisure hours ? Then, in the way of musical entertainment, •I ■ l! 152 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? there are the concerts of the Philharmonic and other great societies. What of the opera ? Is it clean enough for Christian endorsement ? The opera is a musical theatre. The play is sung and acted, instead of being spoken and acted. (1) It also, like the theatre, has a bad history. It was organized about the year 1600 A.D., when Christianity was utterly perverted, and was designed to furnish amusement to people notori- ously lacking in piety and decent morals. It was and still is designed to pander to the vices and passions of immoral society. Italian and French in manners and tastes, it is also Italian and French in morals. (2) Look at its moral tone. The pure and chaste opera is the exception. Of the light and comic, it may be said, if it is not evil it is always effeminate, for as Sir Walter Scott observes, " It has become proverbial to express nonsense and insanity." Boil down " Pinafore " and " Mikado " and what have you got ? Mendelssohn said, " I have no music for such things ; I consider it larmonic and 1 enough for L is a musical id, instead of I bad history. lO A.D., when ;d, and was eople notori- > morals. It • to the vices Italian and '< also Italian le pure and ihe light and it is always observes, " It onsense and id " Mikado " ohn said, " I consider it WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 253 ignoble." But what shall we say of the im- «oraI opera ? Some of the sweetest strains of mu.c ever sung are in - Norma." But how the g,ft of song has been debased. Norma has been seduced, and she discovers her pa«mour in an attempt to seduce her friend. Can Christians patrom.e an institution which thus perfumes sin w^h rose.s, garlands it with flowers, covers it with ■Ik and cnmson. and gives it a tone of ravish- ang melody. "Don Giovanni" is simply -Don Juan a poem which no man or woman could read aloud to a company of friends gathered in the parlor-set to sensuous music ; " La Traviata " >« Cannlle set to music; "Lucretia Borgia" IS adultery associated with incest; "Faust" is the most specious apology for seduction. These are amo„g the most popular of opera.. Can Ch .t:ans go to see represented in an opera what would send to perdition a soul for doin. -^morahties of the deepest dye. perfumed" w.th roses, crowned with garlands, wreathed in fascmatrng smiles, made charming to the ear and bewtchmg to the eye. If it be said that the 'i 154 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? vicious sentiments are in foreign language, we grant it. The English language is not foul enough for such loathsome spawn ; but the libretto makes known the drift of the plot, the singers understand it all, and by the sorcery of music, by attitude, and gesture, and intonation, interpret the unchaste and lawless love. (3) There is one more view of the opera. There are the same indecencies of apparel that characterize the theatre ; and the immoral danc- ing — the ballet — is as much a part of the opera as the music. The crime of undress must con- demn the opera; the question concerning the chorus being not how well they can sing but how little they will wear. Its influence is here all the more demoralizing because the divine art of music is lent to make sin still more enticing, and easy-going Christians are caught in the snare. The great apology for opera-going is to hear the best music, but I will take even that plea away. We have the whole realm of Church music — the grandest in the yv^orld — ai^d Jihe iipinortal oratorios, all open to i yuage, we not foul but the 6 plot, the sorcery of ntonation, e. bhe opera, parel that loral danc- the opera must con- srning the sing but ifluence is [cause the sin still itians are lology for Ibut I will [the whole it in the [1 open tQ WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 155 us. Then there is the wealth of instrumental music— organ, piano, harp, violin— orchestral music, martial music, orchestras, bands, pianists, organists, cornetists, violinists— the eminent masters of every instrument. Then there is the great realm of ballad and song literature. T\u^ vocal concerts, too, are ours, with the best singers, the leading artists in the world. Jenny Lind, and Emma Abbott, and other prima donnas, have refused to sing in immoral operas, but they, with Nillson and others, ars sure to appear in popular concerts. The opera scarcely constitutes one-fiftieth part of the music of the world. Here, then, is forty-nine fiftieths of all the music that has ever been composed which a Christian may enjoy with propriety. What do you want of the only portion that is tainted and immoral? Do you say, "O, to hear the choice music there too." Well, we will take that plea and answer it. The opera consists of much ordinary music, interspersed with airs and recitatives that are simply grand, and these gems are the glory of the opera. But these 1 ill 156 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? ravishing pearls of song are all culled out and published in sheet music, so that we can hear all these rendered by the great singers of the world in popular concerts, without going to the opera. Now, then, with forty-nine fiftieths of all music open to us, and the gems of all the operas culled out of the remaining fiftieth, there is nothing left but the dregs, — nothing more for you to crave save the immoral plot, the cor- rupting sentiments, the indecent dancing, and other accessories. Therefore, never again say that you have to go to the opera to hear the best music. Only an evil heart loves an evil place ; and a deceived heart is willing for the sake of a passing enjoyment to call evil good, and good evil. We have thus gone over the entire ground of amusements. The church, which cannot stand aloof from ♦'•i.mily, political, or social life, does no+ t'»' cent amusements, but only on nents. We have shown the r. dons V .J the Church objects to the theatre, the ope a, the dance, and the card-table. The WHAT SHALL WE DO ? 167 most devout and pious Roman Catholics, Epis- copalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Bap- tists are one with us in condemnation of these things. You cannot find a spiritual worker, or a soul hungering and thirsting after righteous- ness, indulging in these amusements. It is not a very popular thing to be an earnest, zealous Christian. If you want to be popular in society you must not be much of a Christian. So, if you want to be a popular preacher you must not speak out against these things which the world and worldly-minded Church ^members love so well. But one need not go far to find out by experience that the self-denying, earnest, consistent, consecrated people of the Church are not the dancing, card-playing, theatre-going members. It is time that we drew the line between innocent amusements and unhallowed ones. We have tried to speak out the truth, and have made some angry and annoyed many. A few may he thankful for the faithful warn- ing ; but let one and all remember that Chris- tianity is no enemy to enjoyment, simply because ■B9 158 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? \ ' she forbids certain pleasures, and says of them, " No, no ; indulge at your peril." She endorses all pleasures that are pure and wholesome, healthful and invigorating, and she offers also pleasures of her own which the world cannot give. Behold her, heaven-robed and fair. She walks a queen — " grace in all her steps, heaven in all her eye, in every gesture dignity and love." Her pathway is not rough and rugged, through lonely vales beset with thorns and briars, but beneath her feet is pleasantness, at her side ire flowers and sweet fruits, and above hang brij^ht and sunny skies. Her voice is an angel's, and her song is " wed me, fair youth ; love me, fair maiden ; follow me and I will lead you on through pleasant paths unto life's close, and then, clothed with white robes, crowned with bright coronet, I will give thee a golden harp, and put a new song in thy mouth, that thou mayest sing praises to God and the Lamb forever. ' * Ah ! the pleasures of sin are shallow at best. It is the pleasure of gliding down the river ^P of them, pure and r, and she the world d and fair, her steps, re dignity •ough and ith thorns easantness, fruits, and Her voice d me, fair me and I aths unto |hite robes, ive thee a )hy mouth, (d and the iw at best, the river WHAT SHALL WE DO? 159 when the current is hurrying you on, and the cataract is thundering before you. On the banks of Niagara a little child was plaving one summer day, when she strayed to thJ water's edge and climbed into a boat. The boat moved away from the shore with the weight of the child, Mid pleasant were the sensations of the little one. The mother missed the child, and looking to the river saw her in the boat drifting away. She screamed and ran ; she plunged into the water to rescue her darling ; she ventured far, but failed. On sped the boat, now in the current, and along the bank ran the agonized mother. Now, see the rapids are near ! Into them the boat is plunged and hurried to the awful leap. It is carried over the precipice, and the mother's darling is dashed to atoms ! So, in the pleasure boat of sin, the lover of pleasure is drifted joyously along ; but, alas ! he is in the current of an angry flood, and there is no escape. The sensations become uneasy and pain- ful; there is the rocking of the rapids, and r i^ 160 WHAT SHALL WE DO ? then the wild plunge into the abyss of darkness and despair ! Therefore, " Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the un- righteous man his thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." fe3<=- ail 1 ■ f darkness lie he may le is near: id the un- hirn return lercy upon ibundantly • •