Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-25

| exceedingly busy during part of the year
and then leaves him for weeks and months
! entirely unemployed. There are many men
who cannot endure protTacted leisure. They
are like fIactious Steeds that must con-
| stantly be kept to the load, for a weeks quiet
makes them Intractable and uncomfortable.
| Bad habits produce idleness and idleness
/ produces bad habits. Sin will take all enthu-
| siasm ont of your work and make you sick OF
| life's drudgery. Bad habits unfit man for
| everything but politics
Now, what are the results of indolence! A
marked consequence of this vice is physical
| disease. The healthiness of the whole nat
ural world depends upon activity.
Every Living Thing in Cease1ess Motion.
There is an endless activity under foot and
overhead Not one four-o'clock in the
flowerbed, not one fly on the window pane,
not one squirrel gathering food, but is busy
| now and is busy always, fulfilling its mission
as certainly as any monarch on earth or any
angel in heaven. Everything is busy. Moth
ing is inanimate, except the man who can
not see the life and hear the music.
Men will be healthy-intellectually, NOR
ally and physicallv-only upon the condi-
tion of an active industry. / know men die
every day OF overwork. Nature in time ar
raigns every such culprit at her bar, and
presents against him an Indictment of 100
counts, and convicts him on each one or
them. the laws of nature will not stop
their action because men may be ignorant OF
them,
1nere are many VINO estlmat6 Cne reSpect-
ability of an occupation by the little exer-
tion it demands, and would not have their
children enter any employment where their
hands may be soiled, forgetting that labor
ers overalls are ust as honorable as q
priests robes and an anvil is just as respect
able as a pulpit. Health flies from the bed
of down and says: 81 cannot sleep here:"
and from the table spread with ptarmigan
eat here;' and from the vehicle OF soft
cushions and easy springs saying: e! can
not ride here;" and from houses luxuriously
warmed and upholstered, saying: Il cannot
live here"
Satan Has Work for Idle Hands.
Furthermore, notice that Incidence en-
dangers the soul. Satan makes his chief
conquests over men who either have nothing
to do, or, if they have. refuse to do it. There
is a legend that st. Thomas, years after
Christ's resurrection, began again to doubt,
and he went to the Apostles and told them
about his doubts. Each Apostle looked at
him with surprise and then said he must be
excused for he had no time to listen any
longer. Then st. Thomas went to the de-
wont women of his time, and expressed his
doubts. They said they were sorry but they
haa no time to listen. Then St: Thomas
busy that the Apostles and the devout
women had no doubts.
Idleness not only leads q man into associa-
tions which harm his morals, but often
thrusts upon him the worst kind of scepti-
cism. Loaters are almost always inf1dels, or
fast getting to be. Consummate idlers never
read the Bible, and. if they appear in church,
can be distinguished in an audience of a
thousand by their listlessness. for they are
too lazy to hear. 1t is not so much among
occupied merchants, industrious mechanics
and professional men always busy that you
hear the religion of Jesus maligned, as in
public lounging places, given up to profan-
ity and dissoiuteness. They have no SYM
pathy with the book that says: Let him
that stole, steal no more; but rather let him
labor, working with his hands the thing
which is good, that he may have to give to
him that needeth." Inever knew man
given up to thorough idleness that was con-
verted. Simon and Andrew were converted
while fishing, and Lydia while selling
purple.
Opportunities That Are Unimproved.
But my text is descriptive also of those
who hunt for opportunities and, when they
get them, do not use them The rabbit they
overcome by an early morning tramp lies
for weeks uncooked in the dooryard. The
deer that they brought down after long and
pursuit in the Adirondacks lies
on the doorsill undressed and the savory
venison becomes a maiodorous carcass. |
They roast not that which they took in hunt |
ing. Opportunities laboriously captured,
yet useless, and that which came in in !
like a string of plover and quail |
and wild duck hung over a hunters |
turns to something worse than |
ho'liIiIS. So Win aSlipPa, wien at,hoS' per =
suaded to be a Christian. So with the lovely |
young man who went away from Christ |
very sorrowful. So with tens of thousands !
who have whole hands full. whole skies full |
of winged opportunities which profit them |
nothing ut all, because they roast not that |
which they took in hunting. Oh make out |
Of this captured moment a banquet for |
eternity. The greatest prize in the universe
% be won is the love and pardon Of Christ.
Win that and you can say:
Now have found Friend
Whose love shall never end,
Jesus is mine!