The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1880-05-22
THE CECIL WING, ELKTON, SATURDAY MAY ~ 1880
A MODERN SERMON.
Illustrating the Method Upon Which the
Average Parson Constructs His
Discourses.

Discourses.
Brethren, the wolds of our text are:
Old Mother Hubbard, she went to the cup
beard,
To get her poor dog Il bone,
And when she got there the cupboard was
bare
/ And SO the poor dog had none.
! These beautiful words dear friends,
carry with them solemn lesson. pro-
pose this evening to analyze their mean
ing, and to attempt to apply it. lofty as
it may be, to every day life.
Old Neither Hubbard, She went to the cup
To get her poor dog 4 bone.
Mother Hubbard, you see. was old;
| there being no mention of others, we
may presume she was alone, a widow-a
frienGless, old, solitary widow. Yet did
she despair Did she sit down and
weep, or read novel, or wiring her
hands? She did not hop, or skip, or run,
or jump, or use any other peripatetic
article. size solely and merely rent to the
cupboard.
We have seen that she was old and
lonely, and we now further see that she
was poor. For mark, the words are. the
cupboard. Not one of the cupboards, or
the right hand cupboard, or the left hand
cupboard, or the one above. or the one
below. OF the one under the stair. but
lust tie cupboard. The one little hum
BILE cupboard the poor widow possessed.
And why did she go to the cupboard :
Was it to bring forth golden g"blets or
glittering precious stones or costly APP
parel, or feasts. or any other attributes
Of wealth? 1t was to get her poor dog
a 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 wistfulIy at the solitary
cupboard, and the widow going to that
cupboard--in hope, III expectation. may
be-to open it, although we are not dis
tinctly told that it was not half open or
!
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. You
see the beauty of doing right. SHE got
there. There were no turnings and twist
ings, no slippings and slidings, no lean
ing to the right or faltering to the left.
With glorious simplicity we are told that
she got there.
And how were her noble efforts re-
warded?
The cupboard was bare. 1t was bare.
There were to be found neither oranges
nor cheesecakes, no penny buns nor GIN
gerbread, nor crackers or nuts; no luciter
matches. The cupboard was bare
There was but one, only one solitary cup
board i'll that whole cottage, and that
one the sole hope of the widow and the
glorious loadstar of the poor dog, was
bare. Had there been Il leg of mutton,
a loin of lamb a tillet of veal, even an
ice from Gunter's, the case would have
been different, the incident would have
been different, the incident would have
brethren. bare as a bald head, bare as an
infant born without caul.
Many of you will 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, the mundane
desires poor Mother Hubbard, the widow
whom many thoughtless workings would
deSpise. in that she only owned one cup
board, perceived-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 ell
abled her without deviation to reach the
cupboard. She did not attempt like the
stin-necked scoifers of this generation,
to war against the inevitable: she did
not try, like the so-called men of science,
to explain what she did not understand.
, She did nothing. The poor dog had
none. And then at this point our i'll
formation ceases. But do We not know
sufficient? Are we not cognizant of
enough9
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 there? Must We
imagine her still standing at the open
dog still dropping his disappointed tail
upon the tloor-thc sought for bone still
remaining somewhere else? All. no. my
dear brethren, we are not so permitted to
attempt to read the future. Suffice it
for us to CLEAN from this beautiful story
its many lessons; suffice it for us to apply
them, to study them as far as in us lies,
and bearing i'll mind the natural frailty
of our nature, to avoid being widows; So
shun the patronymic Of Hubbard; to
have, if our means afford it, more than
one cupboard III the house. and to keep
stores in them all.
And, oh. dear friends, keeping in rec
objection what we have learned this day.
let us avoid keeping dogs that are fond
of bones. But, brethren, if we do-il
fate has ordained that we shonld do any
of these things-let us then 60, as
Mother Hubbard did, straight, without
curveting or prancing, to our cupboard,
empty tho it be-let us, like her, accept
the inevitable with calm steadfastness,
and should we, like her, ever be left
with a hungry dog and an empty cup
board. may future chroniclerS be able to
write also of u.s. in the beautiful words
of our text:
And so the poor dog had none.
LONG LIFE.
We are accustomed to consider three
score Years and ten the length of human
life. but the late Professor Faraday
adopted the Theory that the natural age
ii man is 100 years. The duration Of
life he believed to be measured by the
H.