American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-07-27
Youths Department.
'sB8ING- NOTHING. Is DOING ILL.,"

| - - y
James, what are you doingT'skt
Nothing .sir' ! f,sRf J 4
Who's that boy with your y i
Charley, SIR"
What's he doingY'
| Helping me. sir" Hltf tE
"Well, never let me catch either of
you doing it again"
Now that is rather an absurd dialogue,
but l dare say you have heard many like
it. There is no such thing as doing
nothing, for, as the text says, doing that
is doing ill.
1t would not, therefore, be difficult
thing to prove that do-nothing is ne'er-
do-well, and as James and Charley belong
ed to that order, they got well-merited
reproof
/ shall endeavor to show you in this
brief discourse that there gre two classes
| of do-nothings, and that both are ILL
doors. r.
l. Active do-nothings. That is, those
who have the appearance of always do
| ing something, but in reality do nothing.
| crossed, and after we have come to
''yours affectionately," we say, A very
| nice letter, but nothing IN it.
We hear a gentleman give an address
or make speech, and when he has con-
cluded, we say, Wonderful man! he
spoke for an hour and said nothing"
We hear people complain about being
very tired sometimes and find on inquiry
that they are tired of doing nothing.
A party of travellers started on a jour
ney through the brush. They walked on
and on for many hours, now up hill and
now down valley, and they broke twigs OF
brushwood, and blaZed the trees with
their hatchets as they passed along, but
after two days hard walking they found
themselves at exactly the same spot from
which they started.
knew a man who was nearly eighty
years old, and when he was asked one
day, "Where are you now, and what are
you doing ~ he replied, with a woe-be-
gone shake of the head, 81 am where /
was when / was a lad, and doing just the
same thing" The fact was, his life had
been failure. He had always been
busy, but had done nothing; had always
been jogging on, but came back to the
same place from which he started.
There are some people who are always
going to do something. 81 mean to be
regular dabster at painting" says boy.
And he folds his arms, and chuckles over
the idea. He surrounds himself with
paper, brushes and pencils; reads chap
ter of D'Aubigne to see if he will throw
any light on his subject: makes elaborate
preparations, but never really begins
He seems to think the painting will do
itself. He grows i'll at- ease with his easel,
and does not stick to the coloIing half SO
well as the colOring sticks to him. He
thinks the ''lines have not fallen in pleas
ant places" and at last decides that ma
ture should draw him to paint, rather
than that he should draw nature. And
SO his ambition dies away.
81 mean to be an author" says another,
and he begins to write an essay on
Things in general" but he exhauts him
self long before he does his subject and !,
soon decides that essay writing is, unfor-
tunately, not his forte.
And you have, perhaps, determined q
great many times, to do something grand
something that shall make your future
bright and glorious, and perhaps you
have hustled about great deal over it;
but if you look back upon the PAST it is
possible you may see that after all you
have done nothing. If this is the case, Il
never do it again.
2. Passive donothings. That is, those
who have the appearance of doing
but really do something.
John had got into scrape-appear-
ances were against him, and he saw the
was about to address him
self to the work of giving him dressing;
Edward sat there, and knew that John s.
was innocent, but he never spoke word.
He might have screened his friend, and
saved his character and his back, Dut ne
did nothing. ---t,. fl.-it+., IA
Yes, boys, you are right; he was
mean, cowardly rascal. He was pas
sive do-nothing. tr-l t...sfIi-f .-
Let me give you a few instances in
which passive do-nothing does evil. .lii n
There is rick, and spark, of fire is
at its side, and he does not
put it out; play-fellow is in. trouble,
md he does not say word to cheer him;
| lad is drowning, and he does not jump
n to save him; a horse is starting off
without its driver, and he does not try to
stop it; man has been run over, and he
loes not staunch his wound. And when
he is blamed, he says. Really. have
lone nothing" No, but this is the evil;
he ought to have done something.
We Judge people as much by what they
10 not, as by what they do; and when, at
asst, the great reckoning-day comes, do
will be judged by the same stand
lrd. Inasmuch as ye did anot.-Sunddy
School Scholar.