Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-05-06

IL.
work they rush upon lancets aud scalpels.
Nature has provided for those wIo violate
her laws by inactivity-what rhaum for the
eyes, and what govt for the feet, ami what
curvature for the spine, ami what structures
for the chest, and what tubercles for the
lungs, and what rheumatism for the muscles,
and what neuralgias for the nerves. Nature
in time arraigns every such culprlt at her
bar and presents against him an Indictment
of one hundred counts, and convlcts him on
each one of them. The laws Of nature will
not stop their action because men may be-
ignorant of them. Disease, when 1t comes
to do its work, does not ask whether you un-
derstand hygiene or pathology or materla
medica.
If there were not so many lies written on
tombstones and in obituaries you would see
what multitu1es Of the worlds Inhabitants
are slain in their attempts to escape the
necessity OF toll. Men cross oceans and con-
tnents and climb the Alps, and sit under
the sky of Italy or the shadow OF Egyptian
Pyramid, and go down into ancient ruins,
and battle at Baden Baden, and come home
with the same shortneSs of breath, and the
same poor digestion, and the same twltch-
ing Of the nerves, when at home with their
own spade they might have dug health out
of the ground, with their own axe hewD
health out Of log, or with their own scythe
garnered health from the grain field.
There are many who estimate the re-
spectability of an occupation by the little
exertion it demands, and would not have
their children enter any employment where
their hands may be soiled, forgetting that
a laborer's overalls are just az honorable as
a priests robes and an anvil is just as re-
spectacle as pulpit. Health flies from the
bed of down and says. Il cannot sleep
here" and from the table spread with
ptarmigan and epicurean vlands. saying, y!
cannot eat here" and from the vehicle of
soft cushions and easy springs, saying, Il
cannot ride here;'' and from houses
luxuriously warmed and upholstered, say
ing, 81 cannot live here" and some day you
meet health, who declined all these lu1urlant
places, walking in the plow's furrow, or
sweltering beside the kissing forge or spin
ming among the looms, or driving dray, or
thinning roof, or carrying hods of brick up
the ladder Of wall.
Furthermore, notice that Incidence en-
dangers the soul. Satan makes his chief
conquests over men who either have moth
ing 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-
vOut women of bis time and expressed his
doubts. They said they were sorry, but
they had no time to listen. Then st.
Thomas concluded that it was because they
were SO busy that the Apostl es and the de-
vOut women had no doubts.
IdlenesS not only leads man into aSSo-
Citations which harm his morals, but often
thrusts upon him the worst kind of skep-
ticism. Loafers are almost always infidels,
or fast getting to be. Consum mate 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
chanics and professional men always busy
that you hear the religion of Jesus
maligned, as in public lounging places, given
mp to profanity and dissouteness. They have
10 sympathy 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."
never knew man given up to thorough
ldleness that was converted. Simon and
Andrew were converted while fishing, and
Lydia while selling purple, and the shepherds
of Bethlehem watching their hocks heard
the voice OF angels, and Gideon was thrash
Ing on the Uhrashlng floor, but no one was
ever converted with his hands in his pockets
Let me tell the idler that there is no hop:
for him either in this world or IN the world
which is to come. If the Son of God, who
owned the whole universe worked in the
carpenter shop of Joseph, surely we, who
own SO little, yet want SO much, ought to be
busy. The redeemed in heaven are never
idle. What exciting songs they sing!
On what messages Of love they fly through
all the universe, fulfilling Gods high bahests
and taking worlds in one circuit; rushing
with infinite fierceIess against sin and
cruelty and oppression, and making the
gates Of hell to quake at the overthrow of
the principalities of darkness, and in the
same twinkle of an eye speeding back to
their thrones with the news of sinners re-
pentant. The River of Life is ever flowing,
and the palms ever waving, and the halleIu-
jahs ever rising, and the harps ever sound
ing, and temple always open, and the golden
streets always a-rush with cnariots of saliva
ton, and the last place which you ought
ever to want to go to is heaven, unless you
want to be busy.
Alas, my hearers. that in this world there
should be SO many loungers and SO few
workers. We go into the vineyard of the
church and we hear the arbor groan under
the heft Of the vines and the clusters hang
ing down. large and thick and ripe, cluster
and cluster, fairer than the punches of
Eshcol and Engedi, and at touch they will
turn into wine more ruddy than that of
Libanus and Helbon. But where are the
men to gather the vintage and tread the
wine press? There comes to your ear a
sound of a thousand wheat fields ready for
the sickle. The grain is ready. It is tall, it
is full. it is golden. 1t waves in the sunlight.
It rustles in the wind. It would fill the
barns. 1t would crowd the garners. After
while it will lodge, or the mildew and the
rust will smite it.
Oh, where are the reapers to bind the
sheaves! The enemies of Go1 are mar
shaled. You see the glitter Of their buck
lers. You hear the paving of their chargers,
and all along the line of battle is heard the
shout of their great captain, and at the
armies of the living God they hurl their de-
fance. They come, not in numbers like the
hosts of SennacheriD, but their multitude is