The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1869-06-29
For THE REGISTER.
"Idle Rest.o

FOR THE .REGIsTER.
"Idle Rest.o
Many are the Lincolns, the Agasses, the
Harriet Beecher Stoves, the Stewards. the
Morses the Millions, the Luthers, and The
Franklins, the memories of whose long
years of close practical labors might be
summoned, we're they needed, all bearing
witness to the great fact that tho cross of
work must inevitably precede the wearing
of worthy crown. Would you be happy,
and at peace with self? Seek not then to
to escape the callous hands or the weary
brain it may cost you. Would you shun
the work the Devil always finds for idle
hands to dol Then have some honest
steady employment of your own. Would
you have that satisfaction with self, and
the world, which ever accompanies con-
tentment and .pose Then be not ashams
ed to and believe that you must earn it.
Whatever is worth having, comes only
as the price of toll. But diligent and in
dustrious habits are desirable, not only be-
cause of the good things which follow in
their train, but also as safeguards against
the evils Of idleness. Ignorance has been
called the mother of crime, if true, idleness
may truly be called its God-mother. For it
is in the minds of the idle and indolent,
that crime and misdemeanors first find
being and home nourishment.
The idlers mind will be continually filled
with unlawful thoughts and visitants.-
Upon the ourskirts of village towns are
shattered houses, abandoned by reputable
persons. They are not empty because all
day silent. Thieves, vagabonds and viii
lians haunt them, in joint possession with
rats, bats and vcrmine. Such are idle
mems imaginations. Full of unlawful
company. The Imagination is closely re-
lated to the passions, and fires them with
its heat.
The day dreams Of indolent youth
glow each hour with warmer colors and
bolder adventures. The imagination
fashions scenes of enchantment in which
passions rcvel, and it leads them out, in
shadows at first, to deeds which soon they
will seek in earnest. Yes! it is IN idle
hours that the first whisperings of wrong
and evil passions are entertained, and are
allowed to take TO themselves form and
shape. Soon these hateful intruders of
the idle mind conquer all the good and
purity that may once have been its in-
mates All !! well may idIeness be called
the Devils workshop, for its hours are
fall loyal to his service.
In the superstitions of former times it
was believed that there was an evil spirit,
who delighted in leading benighted and
unwary travellers astray, by assuming the
appearance Of a light, like that of can
die, And oft they would pursue this
wll-of the-wisp until lost in the meshes
of swamp or lhicket. If such things were
true to-day, we should say that evil spirit
has assumed the form of dleness. That
men giving 1t the names of rest, ease,
leisure, or freedom from care, are follow.
ing the leadines Of tins wicked phantom
up and down the earth. But still it re-
tains its old deceitfulness. For as its
victims reach forth to seize the objects of
their chase, under these names, phantom
like it goes, and they grasp but discomfort,
unrest.
Rest consists not in freedom from care,
but in the freedom of doing and acting.
Rest is not quitting
The busy career,
Rest is the fitting
on sell to ones sphere.
"Is tie brooks motion
Clear, without strife.
Fleeting to
After this lito."
" lis loving, and serving,
The highest and hest,
lis onward, unswerving,
This, this is true rest"
Carl"