Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-06-14

the doors of engine houses, or after the
dining hour stand upon the steps of a
fashionable hotel or an elegant restau-
rant, wishing to give you the idea that
that is the place where they dine. But
they do not dine there. They are sink
ing down 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 a
livinR?" If he says, Nothing, l am q
have very soft hand and very faultless
apparel, and have high sounding
family name, but his touch,is death. Be-
fore you know it you will in his pres
ence be ashamed of your work dress.
Business will become to you drudgery,
and after while you will lose your
place, and afterwards your respecta-
bility, and last of all your soul. Idle
ness is next door to villiany. Thieves,
gamblers, burglars, shop lifters and as
sassins are made from the class who
have nothing to do. When the police
go to hunt up and arrest culprit 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 theater, when
| d
gallery. What is it? A policeman has
come in, and leaning over, has tapped
on the shoulder of young man, saying:
Il 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
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? Ifso will
show you one of the works of an old
master. Here it is: Invent by the field
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 l saw and considered we'll. /
looked upon it and received instruction.
| Yet little sleep, little slumber, lit
| tie folding of the hands to sleep. SO
| shall thy poverty come as one that
traveleth and thy want as an armed man.
don't know of another sentence in the
Bible more explosive than that. 1t first
| misses softly, like the fuse of cannon,
and at last bursts like fifty four
FOUNDER. The old proverb was right:
The devil tempts most men, but idlers
tempt the devil"
| young man came to q man of 80 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 I was a boy, and do you
wonder that now l 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 whirl-
wind. 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: l urge you to avoid the per-
petual pleasure seeker. 1 believe in rec
reation and amusement. l need it as
much as l need bread, and go to my
daily exercise with as conscientious a
purpose as I go to the Lords Supper;
and all persons of sanguine tempera-
1ucuC "uoV nave anu reCrGa-
ton. God would not have made us with
the capacity to laugh if he had not in.
tended us sometimes to indulge it. God
hath hung in sky, and set in wave, and
printed on grass many q roundelay; but
he who chooses pleasure seeking for his
life work does not understand for what
God made him. Our amusements are
intended to help us in some earnest
mission. The thunder cloud hath an
edge exquisitely purpled, but. with voice
that jars the earth, it declares: Il go to
water the green fields" The wild flow
ers under the fence are gay, but they
say: I'VE stand here to make beauti-
full edge for the wheat field, and to re-
fresh the husbandmen in their incoming"
The stream sparkles and foams, and
frolics, and says: Il go to baptize the
moss. I lave the spots on the trout. l
Stake the thirst of the bird. !! turn the
wheel of the mill. rock in my crystal
cradle muckshaw 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 60 a-boating. All these sports are
grand in their places. 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 spirits for our
regular toll. 1 believe in muscular
Christianity. A man is often 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 Schuylkill. 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 glid-
ing of boat, in the song of skates, in
the soaring of a we'll struck ball. and l
never see one fly but l involuntarily
throw up my hands to catch it; and, SO
far from laying an injunction upon ball
playing, or any other innocent sport,
claim them all as belonging of right to
those of us who toll in the grand indus
tries of church and state.
But the life business of pleasure
seeking always makes in the end a
criminal or sot. George Brummell
was smiled upon by ali England, and
his life was e.iyen to Dlaosura Ho