The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-08-08

gage 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 bust
ness hours. Nothing would please them SO
well as to have you renounce rour occupa-
ton 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
fashionable hotel or an elegant restau-
rant, wishing to give you the idea that
this is the place where they dine. But
they do not dine there. They are sinking
lower and lower, day by day. Neither by
day nor by night have any thing to do
with the idlers. Before you admit man
into your acquaintance ask him politely:
''What do you do for living?" If he
says; Nothing; I am a gentleman"
look out for him. He may have very
soft hand and very faultless apparel, and
have high sounding family name, but
his touch is death.
Before you know It you will in his pres
enee be ashamed of your work dress.
Business will become to you drudgery,
and after awhile you will lose your place,
and afterward your responsibility, and
last of all your soul. Idleness is next
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 culprit they seldom go to look in
among busy clerks or in the busy car
rage factory, but they go among the
groups of oilers. The play is going on at
the theater, when suddenly there is
scuffie in the top gallery. What is it?
A policeman has come in, and, leaning
over, has tapped on the shoulder of a
young man, saying: II want you sir"
He has not worked during the day, but
somehow has raked together shilling or
two to get into the top 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 Ashbel Green,
at more than eighty 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:
Il keep busy to keep out of mischief"
No man is strong enough to be idle.
Are you fond Of pictures? II so, l will
show you one of the works of an old mas
ter. Here it is: 81 went by the field of
the slothful, and by the vineyard OF the
man void of understanding, and lol it
was all grown over with thorns, and net
ties had covered the face thereof, and the
stone wall was broken down. Then saw
and considered well. l looked upon it,
and received instruction. Yet a little
sleep, little slum5er, a little folding of the
hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come
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" young man came to
a man of ninety years of age and said to
him: GLOW have you made out to live so
long and be so well?" The old man took
the youngster to an orchard and, point
ing to some large trees full of apples,
said: II planted these trees when l was
a boy, and do you wonder that now am
permitted to gather the fruit of them?"
We gather in old age what we plant in
our youth. Sow to the wind and we reap
the whirlwind. Plant in early life the
right kind of Christian character, and
you will eat luscious fruit in old age, and
gather these harvest apples in eternity.
Again, | urge you to avoid the perpe ual
pleasure seeker. believe in recreation
and amusement. need it as much as [
need bread, and go to my daily exercise
| with as conscientious a purpose as | 90
to the Lords Supper; and all persons of
sanguine temperament must have amuse-
ment and recreation. God would not
have made US with the capacity to laugh
| if He had not intended us sometimes to
indulge it. God hath hung in sky, and
set in wave, and printed on grass many a
roundelay; but he who chooses pleasure
seeking for his life work does not UNDER
stand for what God made him.
Our amusements are intended 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: II go to water the
green fields" 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
husbandmen in their morning" The
stream sparkles and foams, and frolfcs,
and says: 81 go to baptize the moss. [
leave the spots on the trout. | Stake the
thirst of the bird. turn the wheel Of the
mill. rock in my crystal cradle muck
shaw and water lily" And so, while the
world plays, it works. Look out for the
man who always plays and never works.
You will do we'll to avoid those whose
regular business it is to play ball, skate
or go q boating. All these sports are
grand in their places. l never derived so
much advantage from any ministerial
association as from ministerial club
that went out to play ball every Satur-
| day afternoon in the outskirts of Phila-
delphia. These recreations are grand to
/ give us muscle and spirit for our regular
toll. believe in muscular Christianity.
A man is not so near God with weak
stomach as when he has strong
| digestion. But shun those who make
| it their life occupation to sport
| There are young men whose industry and
usefulness have fallen overheard from
| the yacht on the Hudson or the Schuyl-
kill. There are men whose business fell
| through the ice of the skating pond, and
has never since been heard of. There is
beauty in the gliding of boat in the
| song of skates, in the soaring of we'll
! struck ball, and never see one 1y but I
involuntarily throw up my hands to catch
| il, and, so far as laying an INDUCTION upon
ball-playing, or any other innocent sport,