The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1879-07-01
A SPLENDID "TAKE-OFF.n

A MODERN SERMON FROM AN ANCIENT
TEXT.
We do not undertake to say that in the |
following ''take-of' George Cary Eggles-
ton is satirizing his brother, who is an en-
inent methodical minister, but we can say,
and our readers will agree with us, that it
very pointedly exhibits the method upon
which large class of ministers construct
their discourses:
"Bretheren, the words of my text are:
"Old Mother Hubbard, she went to the cupboard,
To get her poor dog bone;
But wheu she got there the cupboard was bare
And 60 the poor dog had none
These beautiful words, my dear friends,
carry with them solemn lesson. pro-
pose this evening to analize their meaning,
and to apply it, lofty as it may be, to our
everyday life,
old Mother Hubbard, she went to the cupboard,
| 10 get her poor dog bone.
Mother Hubbard, you see, was old
there being no mention of Others, we may
presume she was alone; a wiiow--a friend
less, old. solitary widow. Yet, did she des-
| pairt Did she sit down and weep, or read
or wiring her hands, MOI she went to the
cupboard And here she went to the cup
board. She did not hop, or skip or run,
or jump, or use any other peripatetic arti-
flee; she solely and merely went to the cup
| board.
I'VE have seen that she was old and
lonely, and we now further see that she was
poor. For, mark, the words are the cup
board Not 'one of the cupboards, or the
'right-hand cupboard, or the 'lett-hand cup
1 board or the Ole above, Or
the one below, or the one I'M
der the floor, but just THE cupboard
the one humble little cupboard the poor
widow possessed. And why did she 90 to
the cupboard' Was it to bring forth gold
en- goblets, or gittering precious stones, or
costly apparel, or feasts, or any other attrib-
utes of wealth. 1t was to get her poor dog
bone. Not only was the widow poor,
but her dog, the sole prop of her age, was
poor, too. We can imagine the scene. The
poor dog crouching in the corner looking
wistfully at the solitary cupboard, and the
widow going to that cupboard-in hope, in
expectation, may he-to open it, although
we are not distinctly told that it was not
half open or ajGr-to open it for that poor
dog.
But when she got there the cupboard was bare
And SO the poor dog had none
when she got there," You see, dear
brethren, what perseverance is. 70 see the
beauty of persistence in doing right. She
| got there. There were no turnings and
twistings no slippings and slidings, no
leaning to the right or faltering to the left.
With glorious simplicity we are told she
got there.
And how was her noble effort reward.
ed
The cupboard was bare" It was bare
There were to be found neither oranges,
nor cheesecakes, nor penny buns, nor gin.
gerbread, nor crackers, nor nuts,
nor lucifer matches, The cup.
beard was bare! There was but one, only
one solitary cupboard in the whole of that
cottage, and that one, the sole hope of the
widow, and the glorious loadstar of the
poor dog, was bare Had there been a leg
of mutton, q loin Of lamb, tillet of veal,
even an ice from Gatti's, the case would
have been different, the incident would
have been otherwise. But it was bare, my
brethren, bare as u bald head, bare as an.
| FAINT born without caul
MANY Of you would probably say, with
all the pride Of worldly sophistry, The
widow, no doubt, went out and bought Il
dog biscuit All, no. Far removed
from these earthly ideas, these Nun
dane desires, poor Mother Hubbard,
the widow, whom many thoughtless world
lings would dcspise, in that she owned only
one cupboard, percyived--or might even
say saw-at once the relentless logic of the
situation, and yielded to it with all the
heroism of that nature which had enabled
| her without deviation to reach the barren
cupboard. She did not attempt, like the
stitf.necked scofers of this generation, to
war against the inevitable; she did not try,
| like the so-called men of science, to en-
plain what she did not understand, She
said nothing. The poor dog had noncN
And then at this point our information
asses. But do we not know sufficient!
Are we not cognizant of enough2
"Who would dare to pierce the veil that
shrouds the Interior fate Of Old Mother
Hubbard, the poor dog. the cupboard, or
the bone that was not there2 Must we
imagine her still standing at the open cup.
board door, depict to ourselves the dog
still dropping his disappointed tail upon
the floor, the souchttor bone still remain
ing somewhere elsel All! no, my dear
brcthcrcn, we are not 50 permitted to at