The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-05-11
REV. DR.. TALM AGE
IGHE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: evils of Idleness."

TEXT: "'Ihe SI0thfut man rodStetn no'
That aohich he took in hunting.
erbs xii. 81.
David and jeremiah aud Ezskel and Micah
and Solomon Of the text showed that some
thine they had been out on hunting e1'
pedition. Spears lances. swords and nets
were employed in this service. A deep PIT
fall would be digged. In the center OF II
there was some raised ground with pole on
which lamb would be fastened, and the
wild beast not seeing the pitfali. but only
seeing the lamb would plunge for its prey
and dash down, itself captured. Birds were
caught in gins or pierced with arrows. The
hunters in olden time had two missions one
to clear the land Of ferocious beasts, and the
other to obtain meat for themselves ana
their families. The occupation and habit OF
hunters are favorite Bible simile. David
said he was hunted by his enemy like par
&ridge upon the mountain. My text IS
hunting scene.
A sportsman arrayed in garb appropri-
ate to the wild chase lets slip the blood-
thirsty hounds from their kennels. and
mounting his feet horse. with a halloo and
the yell of the greyhound pack they are
OF and away, through brake and dell, over
marsh and moor, across chasms wnere
misstep would hurl horse and rider to death,
plunging into mire up to the Launches or In
10 swift streams up to the bit. TILL tue game
Is tracked by dripping foam and blood, and
the antlers crack on the rocks ana tne
hunter has Just time to be In at the death.
Yet, after all the haste and peril OF the
chase my text represents this sportsman as
being too indolent to dress the game and
prepare it for food. He let's it lie in the
dooryard OF his home and become por1on
for vermin and beaks of prey. Thus by one
master stroke Solomon gives picture OF
laziness, when he says "The slothfut man
roasteth not that which he took IN hunting.
The most Of hunters have the game they
shot or entrapped cooked the same evening
or the next day. but not 80 with this laggard
Of the text Too lazy to rip of the hide.
Too lazy to kindle the fire and put the grid
iron on the Goals.
{ The first picture ever bought was an en-
craving of Thorwaldsen's Autumn" The
clusters Of grapes are ripe on the vine OF the
homestead, and the returned hounds, pant.
ing from the chase, are lying on the doorsill
and the hunter is unShouldering the game,
while the housewife is about to take
portion of it and prepare it for the evening
meal Unlike the person OF the text, she
was enough industrious to roast that which
had been taken in hunting. But the world
has had many a specimen since Solomon,s
time Of those whose lassitude and 1mprovl.
,dence and absurdity were depicted In my
text. The most Of those who have
made dead failure of life can look back
and see time when great opportunity
opened, but they did not know it.
They were not as wise as George Stephen.
son, ''the father OF railways" who, when at
sixteen years Of age he received an appoint
ment to work at pumping engine for
twelve shillings week, cried out: NOW, !
am a made man for life" Godgives to most
men at least one good opportunity. A great
Grecian general was met by group of beg
9ars. and he said to them: IF you want
beasts to plow your land will lend you
some. II you want land l will give you
some. If you want seed to sow your land.
will see that you get it. But will encour.
age none in idleness." So God gives to most
people an opportunity OF extrication from
depressed circumstances. As if to create
in us a hatred for Incidence, God has
made those animals which are slug
eish to appear loathsome in our eyes
while those which are fleet and active ne
has clothed with attractiveness.
The tortoise, the sloth, the snail, the croco-
: die repel us, while the deer and the gazeLe
are as pleasing as they are feet, ana from
the swift wings Of innumerable birds God
has spared no purple or gold or jet or Grim
SON or snowy whiteness. Besides all this the
Bible is constantly assaulting the vice OF
laziness. Solomeh seems to order the ldler
out of his sight as beyond all human instruc-
tion when he says, "Go to the ant thou slug.
gard: consider her ways and be wise." And
Paul seems to drive him up from his dining
table before he gets through with the first
course of food with the assertion. III any
will not work, neither shall he eat"
Now, what are the causes Of laziness and
what are its evil results, knew man who
m
for him to meet an engagement. When ne
was to be married he missed the train. bis
watch seemed to take on the habits OF its
owner. and was always too slow. He had
constitutional lethargy for which he did not
seem responsible. SO Incidence often arises
from the natural temperament. DO not
know but there is a constitutional tendency
to this vice in every man. However active
you may generally be, have you not on some
warm spring day felt a touch OF this 1eeilng
on you, although you may have shaken 'ton
as you would a reptiles But some are so
powerfully tempted to this by their bodily
Constitution that all the work Of their life
has Teen accomplished with this lethargy
hanging on their back or treading on their
heels.
You sometimes behold it in childhood.
The child moping and longing within doors
while his brothers and sisters are at play, or
il he join them he is behind in every race
and beaten in every game. His nerves. his
muscles, his bones are smitten with thia
palsy. he vegetables rather than lives,
creeps rather than walks, yawns rather
than breathes. The animal in his nature Is
stronger than the intellectual. He il gen.
orally q great eater and active only when
he cannot digest what he has eaten. tire
ouires as much effort for him to walk as Tor
others to run. Languor and drowslness are
his natural inheritance. He is built for q
sloy sailing vessel, a heavy hulk and an in
sufficient cutwatsr. Place an active man
Mn such q bodily structure and the latter
would be shacken to pieces in one day.
Every law Of physiology demands that he
bA supine. Such a one is not responsible Tor
thfs powerful tendency Of his nature. bis
GREAT duty is resistance.
when see man fighting an unfortunate
temp6rament all my sympathies are aroused,
and think Of Victor Hugo's account OF a
scene On warship. where, IN the midst Oh
storm at sea, a great cannon got loose. ana
it was crashing this way and that and would
have destroyed the ship; and the chief gun
ner at the almost certain destruction OF his
own life rushed at it with g. haudspike to
thrust between the spokes Of the wheel OF the
rolling cannon, and by fortunate leverage
arrested the gun till it could be lashed fast.
But that struggle did not seem 80 dishearten-
ing as that man enters upon who attempts
to fight his natural temperament. whether 1t
be too fast Of too slow, too nervous or TOO
lymphatic. God help him, for God only can.
Furthermore, Incidence is often the result
OF easy circumstances. Rough experience
in earlier life seems to be necessary in order
to make a man active and enterprising.
Mountaineers are nearly always swarthy,
and those who have toiled among mountains
Of trouble get the most nerve and muscle
!, and brain. Those who have become the de-
liverers OF nations. once had not where to
Law their heads. Locusts and wild honey
have been the fare Of many John the Bap-
t;st. while those who had been fondled OF
st,,,o onS nntta5 and nraisad have often