Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-04-06
A NOBLE OCCUPATION.

AE8LFdCJS from q recent sermon by PrOI. David
Swing, of Chicago.]
lie findeth 1t empty Matt ali. A.
In the parable from which these words
are taken, Christ speaks of an exercised
spirit as having wandered all over the
country without finding suitable dwell
ing place. So the itinerant fend concluded
to revisit the human being out of whom it
had been expelled. It must have been
surprised to find the old heart empty and
idle, ready not only for the return of a
Satan, but for the entertainment of seven
like the former evil one. The number
seven is rhetorical expression, a super
lative degree, indicating the utter idleness
Of the man who had parted with the evil
spirit in the former time
Out OF this parable let us deduce the
lesson that occupation is law of success.
But let us mark, first, that the fact that
former bad spirits have been expelled
from the world, and from all the individ-
uals OF the world, does not imply that
other bad spirits may not have come along
TO settle down in the swept and garnished
hearts.
Mind is a great vital force. 1t is not
ike diamond which one may polish
ard then wrap up and lay away. Some
OF the crown jewels have been stored away
for centuries, and to-day they are as
bright as they were when Elizabeth was
Queen of England, or Louis XIV. King
OF France. Mind is nothing Of this quail
ity. 1t is an action. 1t certainly is known
TO us only by its movements. 1t reflects
and reasons, and speaks, and sings, and
loves, and prays, and hates. 1t is like
ight-not a quantity that can be bottled
up and kept, but only an undulation.
When the undulation ceases we have
darkness. Or the soul is like a musical
tone you cannot store away a musical
tone. 1t exists only in movement of the
air, and when the air finds repose the
musical note has gone forever. Thus the
mind is an action, and having been
helped away from the bad spirits that alb
sorbed It's powers yesterday it cannot be
idle like a Queens diamond. The beau
tiful wild creatures, from lark to lion,
brought from the fields of nature to the
cage OF man, Will move all day or all
night to make in the narrow cage the dis
lance they once made in the great domain
OF liberty. The Bengal tiger will wear
out the floor of his prison in making as
many footsteps S.S he was created by the
Almighty to make in the jungles of India
Thus all life is force, and hence it can
10 toh
Forbidden to walk in the Indian jungle,
the foot must make its daily PAGES in the
confines of a cage. Man is onlv the high
est order of all creatures. In him, there
tore, mind reveals itself as the highest form
OF action, both as to fact of action
and as to the object of activity. Like the
flash Of lightning, the soul must strike
somewhere, either among the clouds,
causing the summer rain, or upon the
cottage, bringing death in an instant To
be without anOble occupation is, therefore,
not to be simply idle, or to be a non-pro-
ducer, but it is to be the victim Of gnaw-
ing, corr0ding force, that, having no food
10 digest, will attack the stomach and di-
gest the very source Of life. Hence came
the aphorism, that can idle brain is the
devils vorKshop." A force is acting
shat Graves something to do, Just as the
drunkard Graves its cup; and as no valua-
bic work is on hand to meet the gnawing
OF the minds perpetual action, the devil
can rush into that brain and make it
shop of all acts and crafts to his malicious
fancy. Plato, in speaking of souls es-
sential life, says, in his poetic manner:
The bees permit no drones to dwell
among them, but kill any heeS that be-
gin to grow idle" In his Anatomy of
Melancholy" Burton says: "Idleness is
the bane Of the body and mind, the step
mother in discipline, the chief author of
mischief, one of the seven deadly sins,
the cushion upon which the devil re-
poses" Thus the absence of an occupa-
ton does not leave us in peace, but in the
very depth Of temptation, for it leaves us
with great unbridled power moving TO
and fro every day in the bosom-a power
that must be fed. Let US assume, then, that
the soul Is vital force, self-acting, ire
pressible, and hence, in the absence of
great pursuit, will not be dormant, but
will turn upon its owner and consume
him.
Let us turn now from this view of the
evil of iGleness to the direct value of a no.
6ple occupation. The first reflection that
occurs is, that the mind itself needs it. It
is pursuit that most educates. The mo-
lment an individual has given his heart to
some calling, then his mind daily wakens
mp, and from each hour gathers new de-
veiopment. The lawyer who properly
loves his profession, and who cherishes
the true conception of that profession,
does not enter it as a lawyer-he enters
it as anovice, wearing indeed the garb of
she Graf, but able for year or two only