The Opelousas patriot. [volume] (Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La.) 1855-1863, 1858-10-09
a Short Patent Sermon.
BY DOW, JR.

- tLa D"L ,E-tl=.p - nAN. t L.sHt| IT, 4-L|
At the request of brother S. M. Kerr,
(Phasax Rancho, near BaDgor,) l will med
die with the following -at7S
/" Whar de hen scratch, dar she spec to tnd
de,bug.' e.. s..& .W.8 m=
M Hearers: / am informed that q dark
complexion preacher, in Columbus, Ohio, once
took the above for his text, and proved from it
that onr First Parents fell out Of an appletree
into a mud-hole which caused their hrst,born
to be as black as your hat. | am afraid that
my colored co.laborer has made much more out
of it than | can; for, turn it over, set it upon
end, lay it down and sprawl it %opea-after all
this old rooster don't find a great deal TO pick
at. s9.a sqr -5@ t,.MY5 .
In the first place, my brethren, I will pro-
like watches? Because we must look inside
Of them for their good qualities, ard judge of
them by their " works"
"WeIl, my brethren the work of men and
women in general consists, for the most part,
in scratching, and the prospect of a bug is the
incentive. YOU may notice, brethren, that
whenever a hen makes a scratch, she always
gives a peck but whether she gets, a bug at
every dip, is very uncertatS, J Imagine not.
Nevertheless, where the he wit.shes there she
expects to find a bug.
Expecting is one thing you know, my friends
and finding, another. You may turn over
many q stone in this precarious world, aud find
no bug, after all. Phrenologieally speaking
the human head is one vast bump Of expecla-
ton, and nothing else.
There are various sorts of bugs, brethren,
in this buggy sphere. There are big-bngs,
lttle-bugs, tumbIe-bugs, straddle-bnss, hum
bugs and bug-bears. But you neen't scratch
about much TO 6od any Of these; Tor they are
everywhere thicker than shippers in a seven
year old cheese.
To find the bug you so earnestly desire, re-
qtires di!igent scratching and if by so doing
you don't happen to catch it, you can comfort
yourself with the reflection that you put in the
ticks for it and it ought to have been yours.
If a young man takes Il girl about to see the
shows, feeds her with tit-bits. and buys her
pretty %caIicoes. his title to a kiss is clear and
indisputable for where the hen scratches,
there she expects to find a bug
The bug that you are all after, my brethren
is the gofd-bug ; but, alack a day, how many
OF you scratch in vain yet i, is found in mau-
ure herbs, as well as in nurilerous places.
The farmer turns it up with his plough, and
the gardener with bis spade, aud yet thousands
keep scratching here and there without finding
'ary bug.
A few years ago hundreds of you fell to
scratching at Kern river, expecting to find a
mighty big-bug. Well, you scratched, aud
scratched, and scratched and what did You
turn up at last = monsirous humbug! Got
frightened and strabbled for home, a vast sight
more buggy than You went-for where The
hen scratches, there she expects to find a bng.'
And now you all want to go to the Frazer
river country but there are so many different
ways to get there, you are in qnandary which
to choose. 1T is like getting to Heaven. The
Catholics insist upon going straight through
I~urgatory--the Baptists 60 a roundabout way
but Keep where there is plenty of water, as
they belong to the class known as amph,bae-
the Presbyterians think their road the safest,
although rather hot--the Universalists declare
theirs to be The most pleasant-whiIe the Meth
odists shout" Halleluyah aud scare up rabbits
as they journey upon the good old Jordan
route. But when you are once there, lat the
diggings, | mean, for | an not sure that YOU
will ever reach the other place,) one stands
Just as good q chance as nnotler-and | don't
know but a little better. You all have about
an equal amount of hope, if not pluck, and
each will probably pitch in and dig with all
the energy q Il terrier al a gopher oie-for
: where the hen scratches there she expects to
find a bug"
Let me make another application of text. my
brethren. Beware of an oily-tongucd, syco-
phantie triend-who is ever too ready to do YOU
a small f%avor-who processes a willingness to
serve You at all times-who praises you us the
loS did The crow fer, while he il thus F" soniz-
zlihg' himself into your good traces, he has a
sly eye upon your parse-yourself forgetting,
for the moment, that where the hen scratches,
there she expects 10 find a bug"
My friends. how uneasy is the immortal
mind III its pent-up prison of clay How it
seems to exnlt in its freedom while w%inging
Its way to you azure field ofIight and glory. or
wandering amid The green old bowers of the
past, where none but itself is permitted TO roam!
What, then, must be its delights, when forever
released from its thraldrom Of flesh, and no
longer depended upon bread, beef and potatoes !
nat day ao'H come when liberty, such as NOR
tails have never yet known will be blissfully
realized in an eternal sphere, where--where
-"where the hen scratches, there she EXPECTS
to lind a bug" So mote it be- [Golden Era
The Contrast