The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-07-18

~
MONROE, La, JULY Is. 1870
A SPECIMEN OF MODERN EXEGESIs.
- birmingham Dart.1
The following hits off pretty fairly
constructed:
"Brethren, the words of my text
are
.eid Mother Hubbard, she went to tho cup
re get her poor dog bono;
But when sho got there tho cupboard was
And so the poor dog had nono'
These beautiful words, dear friends,
carry with them q solemn lesson. j
propose this evening to analyzc their
meaniAg and attempt to apply it, lofty
as II may be, to our everyday life:
Ola Mother Hubbard. she went to tho cup
To get her poor dog IL bone.
Mother Hubbard, you see, was old;
there being no mention made Of others,
we may presume she was alone;
widow-a friendless, old, solitary Wild
oW. Vet did she despair? Did she sit
down and weep, or read a novel, or
wiring her hands? No, sho went to
the cupboard. And here observe that
she event to the cupboard. Sho did
not hop, or skip, or run, or jump, or
use any other peripatetic artifice; she
solely and merely twent' to tho cup
board.
We have seen that she was old and
lonely, and VIC further SEQ that she was
poor. For, mark, the words are tthe
Cupboard Not tOne of the cupboards,'
or the 1right-lland cupboard or the
ono above, or tho one below, or the one
under the door, but just tho cupboard.
The one humble little cupboard 1hc
poor widow possessed. And why did
she so to the Cupboard? Was it to
bring forth golden goblcts or glittering
precious stones, or costly apparel or
feasts, or any other attribute of wealth?
1t was to get her poor dog II bone Not
only was tho 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 ut the solitary cupboard, and
the widow going to that cupboard-in
hope, in expectation may be-to open
it, although we arc not distinctly told
that it was not half open or ajar, to
open 1t for that poor dog:
But when sho got there the cupboard was
Aud SO tho poor dog had mono.
When she got there! You see, dear
brethren, what perseverance is. You
see the beauty of persistence in doing
right. Sho got there. There were no
turnings or twistings, no slippings and
slidings, no leaning to the right or fall
terings to tho left. With glorious sim
plicity we are told she got there.
And low was her noble effort re-
wartled?
The cupboard was bare! 1t was
bare! There were to DO found neither
oranges nor cheese, cakes nor penny
buns, nor gingerbread, nor crackers
nor nuts, nor lucifcr matches. The
cupboard was bare! There was but
one, only ono solitary cupboard in tho
whole of that cottage, and that one,
tho sole hope of the widow and the
glorious load-star of tho poor dog, was
bare. Had there been a leg of mutton
a loin of lamb, fiilet of veal, even an
Ice from Gunter's, the case would have
been different, the incident would have
been otherwise. But it was bare, NV
brethren, bare as q bald head, baro as
An infant born without Il caul.
Many of you will probably say, with
all the pride of worldly sophistry:
THE widow, no doubt, went out and
bought n dog biscuit All, no! For
removed from earthly ideas, these
mundane desires, poor Mother Hub
bard, the widow whom thoughtlcss
worldlings would despisc, in that she
only owned II cupboard, perccivcd-or
I might oven say saW--at once the re-
lentless logic Of the situation, and
yielded to it with I'LL the hcroism of
that nature which had enabled her
without deviation to reach the barren
cupboard. Sho did not attempt, like
the stiff-neckett scoffcrs of this genera
ton, to war against tho inevitable; she
did not try, like tho so-callcd men of
science, to explain what she did not
understand. She did nothing. .Thc
poor dog had none!' And then at this |
point our Information ceases. But do !
we not know sufficient? Are we not |
cognizant of enough?
Who would dare to pierce the veil |
that shrouds tho ultcrior fate of old
Mother Hubbard-thc poor ,loy-thc
cupboard-Or the bono that was not
there ? Must we imagine her still
standing ut the open cupboard door,
depict to ourselves the dog still droop-
Ing his disappointed tail upon the floor,
tho sought-for bone still remaining
somewhere else? All! no, my dear