The Penn's Grove record., 1892-04-29
REV. DIR. FALMAGE.
CHE BRo0kLFN -ayINE'S Sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject, Evils of Idleness.'

CRIBS xii, q.
David and jeremiah and Ezskel and Micol
and solomon of the text showed that som
~ they had been out on n hunting ex'
pedltlon. Spears, lances, SWORDS n net
were employed in this service. A deep PIT
fall would be iigged. In the center OF II
there was some raised ground with a poe on
which a lamb would be fastened, 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 ferocious beasts, and the
other to obtain meat for themselves and
their families. TIL occupation and hahlt oil
hunters are a ~favorite Bible simile. David
said he was hunted by his enemy like a par
fridge upon the mountain. My text Is o
hunting scene.
A sportsman arrayed in a garb appropri-
ate to the wild chase lets slip the bloc l.
thirsty hounds from their kennels, and
mounting his fleet horse, with a halloo aud
the yell of the greyhound pack they are
off and away, through brake aud del, over
marsh and moor, across chasms where Il
misstep would hurl horse and rider to death,
plunging into mire up to the launches or IN
to swift streams up to the bit, till the game
Is tracked by dripping foam aud blood, aud
the antlers crack On the rocks, and the
hunter has Just time to be in at the death.
Yet, after all the haste and peril of this
chase, my text represents this sportsman as
being too INDECENT to dress the game and
prepare it for food. He lets it lie in tine
dooryard OF his home and become a portion
for vermin and beaks of prey. Thus by one
master stroke Solomon gives a picture OF
l~aZiness, when he says, 1.-THE slothful man
roasteth not that which he took in hunting"
The most Of hunters rave the game they
shot or entrapped cooked the same evenln :
or the next day. but not so with this lagsafl
of the text. Too lazy to rip off the hide.
Too lazy to kindle the fire and put the grid
iron on the Goals.
The first picture l ever bought was an en-
craving of ~Thorwaldsen's "Autumn." The
clusters of grapes are ripe on tine wine OF the
homestead, and the returned hounds, pant
ing from the chase, are lying on the doorsiii
and the hunter is unshouldering the game,
while the housewife is about to take a
portion of il 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 tbs world
has had many a specimen since Solomon's
time of those whose lassitude and improvi.
dence and absurdity were depicted in my
text. The most of those who have
made a dead failure of life can look back
and see a Time Wnen a greab opportunity
opened, but they did not know it.
They were not as wise as George Stephen
son, ''the father of railways" who, when at
sixteen years OF age he received an appoint
ment to work at a pumping engine for
twelve shilIings a week, cried OUT: snow, /
am a made man for life" God gives to most
men at least one good opportunity. a great
Grecian general was met by a group of beg
gars, and he said to them. 'lf you van
beasts to piow your land l will lend you
some. If you want land | will give you
some. II you want seed to SOW your land.
l will see that you get it. But | will encour-
age none in illeness." So God gives to most
people an opportunity Of extrication from
depressed circumstances. As if to create
in us a hatred for Incidence, God has
made those animals which are slug
pish to appear loathsome in our eyes,
while those which are fleet and active he
has clothed with attractiveness
The tortoise, the sloth, the snail, the croco-
die repel us, while h 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 Grim
son or snowy whiteness. Besides all this the
Bible is constantly assaulting the vice of
laziness. Solomon seems to order the idler
out of his sight as beyond all human instruc-
ion when he says, go to the ant, thou slug
gard: consider her ways and 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 assertion, "If any
will not work, neither shall he eat"
Now. what are the causes of laziness ant.
what are its 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 married he missed the train. His
watch seemed to take on the habits of its
owner, and was always too slow. He had a
constitutional lethsrsy for which he did not
seem responsible. SO Incidence often arises
from the natural temperament. L do not
know but 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. although you may have shaken it of
as Won would a ~reptileP 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.
The child moping and longing within doors
while his brothers and sisters are at play, or
n he ioin them he is behind in every race
and beaten in every game. His nerves, his
muscles. his bones are smitten with this
nalsy. He vegetables rather than lives,
Greens rather than walks, yawns rather
than breathes. The animal in his nature is
stronper than the intellectual. He is gen.
orally a great eater and active only when
he cannot digest what ne mas eaten. 1t re
nnires as much effort for him to walk as for
athers To run. Languor and drowsiness are
bis natural inheritance. He is built for a
allow sailing vessel, a heavy hulk and an in
s,hscient cutwatar. Place an active man
in such a bodily structure and the latter
would be shacken to pieces in one day.
Every law of physiology demands that he
he supine. Such a one is not responsible for
this powerful tendency OF his nature. His
great duty is resistance
When / see a man fighting an unfortunate
temperament all my %sympathies are aroused,
and / think OF Victor Hugo's account of a
SCENE on a warship, where, in the midst of a
storm at sea, n great cannon get loose, and
IL was crasbipg this way and that aud would
have destroyed the ship; and the chief gun
mar at the almost certain destruction of his
own life rushed at 1t with a h~aLispike to
thrust between the spokes Of the wheel OF the
rolling cannon, and by a fortunate leverage
srrestei the gun till it could he ltshed fast.
Rnt that struggle did not sesIn so &shearten-
inc as that man enters upon who attempts
10 1iaght his natural temperament, whether it
he too fast of too slow, too nervsus or too
God help him, for God only can.
y EI,rthermore. Incidence is often the result
NJ easv circumstances. Rough experience
IN cartier life seems to be necessaryin order
70 make a man active and ents-prising,
Monntaineers are nearly always syarthY,
md those who have toiled among Mountains
of TroubIe get the most nerve and muscle
nd brain. Those who a v becomethe de-
Iiysrers of nations, once had not were to
iay their heads. Locusts N wild honey
hsya beer fine fare Of many a John tie Bap.
~ rb;Ie those who had been fon.led Of
fortune and petted and praised have often
grown up lethargic'
comes from fighting ones W battles The
wsrm summer sun Of prosperity has weak
80 and relaxed them. Born amnag the
%i.Snriss of life, exertion has been uIneces.
49, and therefore they spend their tine in
esLne n easy They may enter into ibusi-
-. knt they are not fitted for its ap,lica-
H., h hardships for its repulses, andafter
hsv1ng lost the most of that which theyhave
1900, 90 back to thorough inaction. This
costly Yacht may DO well enough on tn,
smooth, CLASSY bay, but cannot live anhouI
smid a chopped sea.
Another cause of Incidence Is severe al.
couragement. There are those arourR n
who Started life with the most sanpnIn,
expectation. Their enterprise excited the
remark Of all compeers, But some sudden
and overN helming misfortune met then,
and heuceforth they have been iuacti@,
Trouble. instead Of making them more al