The Forrest City times., 1892-04-29
ROOT OF MANY EVILS,
DR. TALMACE PAYS HIS RE SPECTS TO THE LACCARD.
Ne Room In this World for Lazy Men aAd Women The sIothful Man Roaststh Not that Which He Took In Huntine"-A Sermon From Proverbs.


 to the Brooklyn Tabernacle this morn ing would have no difficulty in under standing the secret of the attraction which fills the vast building Sunday after Sunday with throngs of eager listeners. Avoiding abstruse theologi- cal subjects, Dr. Talmage preached a sermon on a practical topic giving shrewd common-sense lessons of in estimable value to his hearers, especially to the young people. His text was, Prov. 12:27 1.-The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting"
 David, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Micah, and Solomon of the text showed that some time they had been out on hunting expedition. Spears, lances, swords, and nets were em- ploved in this service. A deep pitfall would be digged. In the center of it there was some raised ground with a pole on which lamb would be fast ened. and the wild beast not seeing the pitfall, 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 fero- cious beasts and the other to obtain meat for themselves, and their fami- lies. The occupation and habit of hunters are a favorite bible simile. David said he was hunted by his enemy like partridge upon the mount ain. My text is a hunting scene.
 The first picture l ever bought was an engraving of Tborwaldsen's Autumn" The clusters of grapes are ripe on the vine of the homestead, and the returned hounds, panting from the chase, are lying on the door sill, 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 those whose lassltude and inn providence and absurdity were depicted in my text. The most of those who have made a dead failure of life can look back and see time when a great opportunity opened but they did not know it. They were not as wise as George Stephenson. "the father of railways" who, when at l6 years of age he received an appoint ment to work at pumping engine for twelve shillings a week, cried out: "Now I am made man for life" God gives to most men at least one good op- portunity. A great Grecian general was met by a group of beggars- and he said to them: "If you want beasts to blow your land, will lend you some. If you want land, I will give you some. If you want seed to sow your land, I will see that you get it. But I will encour- age none in likeness" So. God gives to most people an opportunity of extri- cation from depressed circumstances. As if to create in us hatred for indo- lence, God has made those animals which are sluggish to appear lcathsome in our eyes, while those which are feet and active, he has clothed with attract L. iveness. The tortoise, the sloth, the snail, the crocodile repel us, while the deer and the gazelle are as pleas ing as they are fleet, and from the swift wings of innumerable birds God has spared no purple or gold or jet or crimison or snowy whiteness. Beside all this the Bible is constantly assaulting the vice of laziness. Solomon seems to order the idler out of his sight as being beyond all human instruc. | tion when he says: ''Go to the ant, thou sluggard; 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 oi food with the assertion: "If any will not work, neither shall he eat
 Now, what are the causes of laziness and what are its evil results? knew a man who was never mp to time. Il seemed impossible for him to meet an engagemnnt When he was to be mar | ried he missed the train. His 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. Sc | incidence often arises from the
 
 know but that 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 feeling on you, al | though you may have shaken it off as you would a reptile? But some are SC powerfully tempted to this by their bod a1 hn their life has been accomplished witt
 this lethargy hanging on their bacl or treading on their heels. You some l times behold it in childhood
 The child moping and loungine
 within doors is behind in every race | and beaten in every game. His nerves l his muscles, his bones are smitten witt
 this palsy. He vegetates rather thar | lives, creeps rather than walks, yawni rather than breathes. The animal ir | his nature is stronger than the intellect ual. He is generally great eater ant | active only when he cannot digest thai which he has eaten. It requires as | much effort for him to walk as fol others to run. Languor and drowsines' are his natural inheritance. He il
 built for slow-sailing vessel, heavy | hulk and an insufficient cut | water. Place an active man in sucl
 a bodily structure and the latter would
 be shaken to pieces in one day. Ever,
 law Of physiology demands that he b' supine. Such one is not responsible | for this powerful tendency of his nature | His great duty is resistance. When