Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-04-29

BROOKLYN, N. Y, April GA visitor
! 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 practical topic giving
shrewd common-scnse lessons of in
estimable value to his hearers, especially
to the young people. His text was,
Prov. 1927 "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 en-
ployed in this service. A deep pitfall
would be digged. In the center of it
there was some raised ground with
pole on which a 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
m eat for themselves, and their fami-
lies. The occupation and habit of
hunters are a favorite bible smile
David said he was hunted by his
enemy like partridge upon the mount
ain. My text is u hunting scene.
The first picture l ever bought was
an engraving of Thorwaldsen's
Autumn" The clusters of grapes
are ripe on the vine of the homestead,
and the returned hounds, painting 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
a specimen since Solomon's time OF
those whose lassltude and i'm
providence and absurdity werc
depicted in my text. The
most of those who have made
a dead failure of life can look back and
see time when n 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 an appoint
ment to work at pumping engine for
twelve shillings Il week, cried out:
"Now l am made man for life" God
a.
portunity. A great Grecian general
was met by group of beggars, and he
said to them: IF you want beasts to
pillow your land, will lend you some. If
you want land, will give you some. If
you want seed to SOW your land, / will
see that you get it. But 1 will encour-
age none in idleness." So, God gives
to most people an opportunity of eXtri-
cation from depressed circumstances
AS if to create in us a hatred for indo-
lence, 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 attract
iveness. The tortoise, the sloth, the
snail, the crocodile repel us, while the
deer and the gazelle arc 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 crimson 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-
,1n,. 1,A 20 n,,f
thou sluggard; consider her ways ana
be wise" And Paul seems to drive
him up from his dining table before he
gets through with the first course of
food with the assertions: eff any will
not work, neither shall he eat"
Now, what are the causes of laziness
and what are it's evil results? / knew
a man who was never up to 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 it's
owner and was always too slow. He
had constitutional lethargy, for
which he did not seem responsible. So
Incidence often arises from the
natural temperament. l do not
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 SO
powerfully tempted to this by their bod.
ilv constitution that all the work Of
their'life has been accomplished with
this lethargy hanging on their back
or treading on their heels. You some
times behold it in childhood.
The child moping and lounging
within doors is behind in every race
and beaten in every game. His nerves,
his muscles, his bones are smitten with
this palsy. He vegetables rather than
lives, creeps rather than walks, yawns
rather than breathes. The animal in
his nature is stronger than the intellect
ual. He is generally great eater and
active only when he cannot digest that
which he has eaten. 1t requires as