The Dickinson press., 1892-05-07
. SLOTHFUL MAN.
Talmage Discourses on The
Causes and Results of IndOl-
ence.
Some Are Born Lazy. Others Become
Lazy and Still Others Have Lazi-
ness Thrust upcn Them.

Talmaee preached a sermon on a
practical topic, giving shrewd com.
mon sense lessons of inestimable
value to his hearers, especially the
young people. His text was, Pro.
verbs xii:27, The slothful man
boasteth 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 a hunting expedition.
Spears, lances, swords. and nets were
employed in this service. \ deep
pitfall would be digged. In the center
OF it there was some raised ground
with q pole on which Il lamb would be
fastened, and the wild beasts not see
ing the pitfall. but only seeing the
lamb would plunge for it's prey and
dash down, itself captured. Birds
were caught in gins, or pierced with
oAAS"S' Inc iltlleIS III OiQcll li1Iles
had two missions, one to clear the
land OF ferocious beasts and the
other to obtain meat for themselves
and their families. The occupation
and habits OF hunters ale a favorite
Bible smile. David said he was
hunted by his enemy like a partridge
upon the mountain. My text is a
huntin. scene.
A sportsman arrayed in a garb APP
propliate to the wild chase let's slip
the bloodthirsty hounds from their
kennels, and mounting his fleet horse
with a halloo and the yell of the grey
hound pack, they are off and away,
through brake and dell, over marsh
and moor, across chasms where q
misstep would hurl horse and rider to
death, plunging into mire up to the
launches or into soft streams up to
the bit, till the game is tracked by
dripping foam and blood, and the
antlers crack on the rocks, and the
hunter mas Just time to he in at the
death. Yet, after all the haste and
peril OF the chase. my text represents
this sportsman a being too indo!ent
to dress the game and prepare it for
food.
The most OF those who have made
A DEAD FAILURE
OF life can look back and see a time
when a great opportunity opened but
they did not know it. They were not
as wise us George Stephenson, "the
father OF railways" who, when at 16
years OF age he received al appoint
ment to work at u pumping engine at
~ shillings II week, cried ont: "Now,
l am a made man for life" AS if to
create in us a hatred for Incidence,
God has made those animals which
are sluggish to appear loathsome in
Our eyes, while those which are fleet
and active he has clothed with attrac-
tiveness. The tortoise, the sloth, the
snail, the crocodile repel us, while the
deer and the gazelle are as pleasing as
they are fleet, and from the swift
wings OF innumerable birds God has
spared no purple or gold or Jet Or
crimson or snowy whlteness. Be-
side all this the Bible is constantly
assaulting the vice OF laziness.
Now, what are
THE CAUSES OF LAZlNEss
and what are it's results? | knew a
man who vas never up in time. 1t
seemed impossible for him to meet an
engagement. 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 a constitutional lethargy, for
which he did not seem responsible. So
Incidence often rises from the natural
temperament. l do not know but
that there is a constitutional tend
ency to this vice in every man. How
ever active you may generally be,
have you not on some warm spring
day felt a touch OF this feeling on you,
although you may have shaken it off
as you would a reptile? But some are
SO powerfully tempted to this by their
bodily constitution that all the work
of their life has been accomplished
with this lethargy hanging on their
back or treading on their heels. When
| see a man fighting an unfortunate
temperature all my sympathies are
aroused and | think OF Victor Hugo's
account OF a scene on q warship,
where in the midst OF a storm at sea a
great cannon had got ose and it was
crashing this way and that and would
have destroyed the ship; and the
chief gunner, at the almost certain
destruction OF his W life, rushed at
it with a handspike to thrust between
the spokes of the wheel of the rolling
cannon. and by a fortunate leverage
arrested the gun till it could be dashed
fast. But that struggle did not seem
so disheartening as that man enters
upon who attempts to fight his nat.
ural temperament, whether it be too
fast or too slow, too nervous or too
Emphatic. Godhelp him for God only
can.
Furthermore, Incidence is often are
suit OF easy circumstances. Roughex-
perience in earlier life seems to be nee
essary in order to make a man active
and enterprising. Mountaineers are
nearly alwaysswarthy and those who
have toiled among mountains oil
trouble get the most nerve and muscle
and brain. Those who have become
the deliverers OF nations once had not
where to lay their heads. Locusts and
wild honey have been thefare OF many
a John the Baptist, while those who
have been
FONDLED OF FORTUNE
and petted and praised have otter
grown up lethargic.
Another cause OF Incidence is severe
encouragement. There are those
around us who started life with the
most sanguine expectation. Their en-
terprise excited the remark OF all COM
peers. But some sudden and over
whelmihg misfortune met them and
henceforth they have been inactive.
There are but few sadder sights than s;
nan OF talent and tact and undoubted
capacity giving up life as a failure, like
a line ofmagniticent steamers rottine
against wharves, from which they
ought to have been carrying the ex-
portations OF nation. Every great
financial panic produces a large crop
Of such men. In the great establish
ments where they were partners in