Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-06-15

says Death" 'for you have only ten
seconds now to live; / wan your soul"
The dying man says: Don't breathe
that cold air into my face. You crowd
me too hard. 1t is getting dark in the
room. o, Godp' Hush" says Death,
you said there was no God" pray
for me-" exclaims the expiring inidel.
TOO late to pray" says Death; but
three more seconds to live, and ! will
count them of-one-two-three." he
has gone! Where? Where? Carry him
out-out, and bury him beside his father
and mother, who died while holding fast
the Christian religion. They died sing
ing; but the young infdel only said:
Don't breathe that cold air into my
face. You crowd me too hard. 1t is
getting dark in the room"
Again, I urge you to shun the com
partnership of idlers. There are men
hanging around every store, and office,
and shop, who have nothing to do, or act
as if they had not. They are apt to come
in when the firm are away, and wish to
engage you in conversation while you are
engaged in your regular employment.
Politely suggest to such persons that you
have no time to give them during business
hours. Nothing would please them 80
well as to have you your occu-
patio, and associate with them. Much
Of the time they lounge around the club
rooms or the doors Of engine houses. or
after the dining hour stand upon the steps
Of a fashionable hotel or an elegant
restaurant, wishing to give you the idea
that that is the place where they dine
But they do not dine there. They are
sinking down lower and lower, day by
day. Neither by day nor by night have
anything to do with the idlers. Before
you admit a man into your acquaintance
ask him politely: What do you do for
a living3" If he says, Nothing; ! am a
gentleman" look out for him. He may
have a very soft hand and very faultless
apparel, and have a high sounding family
name, but his touch is death. Before you
know it you will in his presence be
ashamed of your work dress. Business
will become to you drudgery, and after a
while you will lose your place, and
afterwards your responsibility, and last
of all your soul. Idleness is mex door TO
villainy. Thieves, gamblers, burglars,
shop lifters and assassins are made from
the class who have nothing to do. When
the police go to hunt up and arrest a cul-
prit they seldom go to look in among
busy clerks or in the busy carriage
factory, but they go among the groups Of
idlers. The play is going on at the
theatre, when suddenly there is a scuttie
in the top gallery. What is it2 A
policeman has co ne in, and, leaning over,
has tapped on the shoulder of a young
man, saying: Il want you, sir" he
has not worked during the day, but
somehow has raked together a shilling or
two to get into the to gallery. He is an
idler. The man on his right hand is an
idler and the man on his left hand is an
idler.
Shrink back from idleness in yourself
and in others if you would maintain a
right position. Good old Ashhel Green,
st more than SO years Of age, was found
busy writing, and some young man said
to him: why do you keep busy? 1t is
time for you to rest" He answered:
II keep busy to keep out of mischief"
No man is strong enough to be idle.
Are you fond of pictures9 If 80 | will
show you one of the works of an old
master. Here it is: Il went by the
field of the slothful, and by the vineyard
of the man void Of understanding; and
10! it was all grown over with thorns,
and nettles had covered the face thereof,
and the stone wall was broken down.
Then / saw and considered well. |
looked upon it and received instruction.
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber. a little
folding of the hands to sleep, So shall
thy poverty come as one that traveleth
and thy a as an armed man" |
don't know Of another sentence in the
Bible more explosive than that. 1t first
Kisses softly, like the fuse Of a cannon,
and at last bursts like a fifty.four
FOUNDER. The old proverb was right:
THE devil tempts most men, but idlers
tempt the devil"
A young man came to a man 30 years
of age and said to him: How have you
made out TO live so long and be so well?"
The old man took the youngster to an
orchard, and, pointing to some large
trees full of apples, said: Il planted
these trees when | was a boy, and do you
wonder that now l am permitted to
gather the fruit of themp" We gather
in old age what we plant in III
youth. Sow TO the wind, and we reap
the whirlwind. Plant il early life the
right kind of q Christian character, and
you will eat luscious fruit in old age,
and gather these harvest apples in
eternity.
Again: I urge you to avoid the per-
petual pleasure seeker. l believe in re-
action and amusement. l need it as
much as l need bread, and l go to my
daily exercise with as conscientious q
purpose as I go to the Lords supper;
and all persons Of sanguine temperament
must have amusement and recreation.
God would not have made Us with the
capacity to laugh if he had NO intended
us sometimes to indulge it. God hath
hung in the sky, and set in wave, and
printed on grass many a roundelay; but
he who chooses pleasure seeking for his
life work does not understand for what
God made him. Our amusements are in.
tended to help us in some earnest mission.
The thunder cloud hath an edge exquis-
itely purpled, but with voice that
Jars the earth, it declares: Il
60 to water the green flelds.'' The
wild flowers under the fence are gay, but
they say: 1--WE stand here to make a
beautiful edge for the wheat field, and to
refresh the husbandman in their noon
ing" The stream sparkles and foams,
and %frolies, and says: Il go to baptize
the moss. ] lave the spots on the trout.
| slake the thirst of the bird. | turn the
wheel of the mill. l rock in my crystal
cradle muckshaw and water lilly" And
so, while the world plays, it works. Look
out fer the man who always plays and