Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-04-25


dscsng thenselsas, bat. - the time
reils on. the season of dissipation De-
comes more prosrscted and the season
OF sls~alaess saa ssoriesy more limited,
until the employers become disgusted
and the man 70 given up 70 continual
ana ruinous idlensss. When that point
has arrived he PUSHES % destruction with
sstoaisaiag seiootsy. Whea NAN VITA
wrong proehvlsses has nothing - do, no
former self respect or moral restraint or
ths beseechings u kindred can save hin-
The cssy safety for . man who feels
himself under the fascination OF any
form OF temptation Is an employment
which affords neither recreation nor
holiday. Nothing can he mere unforsa-
nate for man OF evil inclination than
a. occupation which keeps him exceed
ingly busy during a part Of the year and
then leaves him for weeks and months
entirely unemployed There are many
men who cannot endure prosracted
leisure. They are like fractions steeds
that must constantly be kept TO the load.
for weeks quiet makes them intract-
able and uncontrollabls. Bad habits
produce idieness and idlsness produces
bad habits.
The probability is that you win either
have 10 give up your loose indulgences
or else give UP your occupation. Sin
will take al enthusiasm ont Of your work
and make you sick Of life's drudgery.
and though now and then between your
seasons Of dissipation. you may ronse up
TO sudden activity and start again in
the chase OF some high and noble end,
even though you catch the game. you
will sink back into slothfulnoss before
you have roasted that which You took
in hunting. Bad habits unfit man for
everything bat politics.
Now. what are the results Of indo-
lence? A marked consequence Of this
vice Is physical disease. The heslthi-
ness Of the whole natural world depends
upon activity. The winds, tossed and
driven in endless circuits, scattering the
mists from the mountains, and scooping
out death damps from the caves, and
blasting the miasua Of swampe, and
hurting back the fetid atmosphere Of
great cities, are healthy just because Of
their swiftness and Observation-Disclosures
Of sweep. Bu. after awhile the wind
falls, and the hot sun pours through it,
and when the leaves are still. and the
grain fields bend not once all day long,
then peetilence snlites its victims and
digs trenches for the dead.
The fountain, born far up in the wild.
wood Of the mountain, comes down
bright for every obstacle against which
it is riven, and singing o new song on
every shelf of rock over which it bounds,
till it rolls over the water wheels In the
valley. not ashamed to grind corn, and
runs through the long grass of the
meadow, where the willows reach down
to dip their branches and the unyoked
oxen come at eventide to cool. Healthy
water! Bright water! Happy water!
While some stream, too lazy any more
torun. gathers itself into a wayside pool
where the swine wallow. and filthy in
sects hop over the surface, and reptiles
crawl among the ooze, and frogs utter
their hideors croak. and by day and
night there rises from the foul mire and
green scum fever and plague and death.
There is an endless activity underfoot
and overhead.
Not one four o'clock in the flower bed,
not one fly on the window pane, not one
squirrel gathering food from the cones
of the white pine. not one rabbit feeding
ON clover tops, not one drop falling in a
shower, not one minnow glancing in the
sea, not one quail whist,ing from the
grass, not one hawk cawing in the sky,
bu. is busy now snd is busy always, full
filling its mission rs certainly as any
monarch on earth CT any angel IN heaven.
NATURE NEVER IDLE.
You hear the shout of the plowboys
busy in the field and the rattle Of the
whif1etrees on the harrow, but you do
not know that there Is more industry in
the earth upturned and in the dumb
vegetation underfoot than in all that
you see. If you put your ear to lump
Of riven sod you may hear nothing in
the roots and spicule of grass. bat there
are az work spades and cieavers and pile
drivers and battering rams and inter
necine wars. DO not wonder that TIE
lively fancy of the ancients saw in the
insnimste creation around Floras and
Pomonas and Graces aud Fauns aud
Fairies and Satyrs and Nynphs. Every.
thing is busy. Nothing is inanimste,
except the man who cannot see the life
and hear the music.
At the creation the morning stars sang
together, bat they were only the choir
which was 10 lead all the stars. and all
the mountains, ard all the seas in Gods
worship. All natural objects seem al
ono and the same time uniting in work
and JOY and worship In Gods creation
there is no pause in either the worship,
o. the work. or tho soy. Amid all nat
ural objects Mt one and the same time II
II Halloween and Whitsunday and Al,
Wednesday and All Saints Day. All
thu healthy beauty of that which We see
and hear In the natural world is depend.
sDt upon activity and unrest Men
win Be hcalthy-intellectus morally
and physically only upon the condition
Of ~ act1ve industry. know men die
every day Of overwvrk. They drop
dow in coat pits. and among the spindles
Of northern factories, and on the cotton
plantations Of the south
In every city and town and village you
end men groaning under burdens, ~ IN
The east The camels stagscr under theil
loads between Aleppo and Damascus
Lis~ il crushcd out every day at counter
and workbsnches and anvil Bat Their
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