The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-03-18

may be no pomp or obsequles and no
pretense at epitapheology, but you
can tell how high he was in conse-
Grafton and how high in usefulness by
how long is his shadow when he
comes to lie down.
What is true of individuals is true
of cities and nations, Show me the
free libraries and schools of a Gty,
and will tell you the intelligence of
its people. Show me its gallery of
painting and sculpture, and l will
tell you the artistic advancement of
| its citizens. Show me its churches,
and l will tell you the moral and
religious status of the place From the
fact that Og's bedstead was thirteen
and half feet long, conclude the
giant himself was about eleven feet
high.
But let no one by this thought be
induced to surrender to unfavorablc
environments A man can make his
own bedstead, Chantrey and Hugh
Miller were born stonemasons, but
| l1lt oIlt DtIttlllS XII llhlhol Nul SSNilppol
and the other a Christian scientist
whose name will never die. Turner,
the painter, in whose praise John
Ruslxin expended the greatest genius
of his life, was the son of a barber
who advertised "a penny n shave"
Dr. PIideaux, one of the greatest
scholars of all time, earned his way
through college by securing pots and
pans; The late Judge Bradley worked
his way up from charcoal burner
to the bench of the supreme court of
the United States. Yes, man can
decide the size of his own bedstead.
EVEN GIANTS MUST REST.
Notice, Furthermore, that even
| giants must rest. Such enormous
physical endowment on the part of
King Og might suggest the capacity
to stride across all fatigue and omit
slumber. No He required an iron
bedstead.. Giants must rest. Not
appreciating that fact, how MANY of
! the giants yearly break down. Giants
in business, giants in art, giants in
eloquence, giants in usefulness. They
live not out more than half their
days,
They try to escape the consequence
of overwork by voyage across the
sea or sail in a summer yacht, or
call on physicians for relief from in
somnia, or restoration of unstrung
nerves, or the arrest of apoplexies,
when all they need is what this giant
Of my text resorted to-an iron bed
stead Let no one think because he
has great strength of body or mind
that he can afford to trifle with his
unusual gifts. The commercial world,
the literary world; the artistic world
the political world, the religious
world are all the time aquake with
the crash of falling giants.
King Og, no doubt, had a throne,
but the Bible never mentions his
throne. King Og, no doubt, had a
crown, but the Bible never mentions
his crown. King Og, no doubt, had
a scepter, but the Bible does not men
lion his scepter. Yet one of the largest
verses of the Bible is taken up in de-
scribing his bedstead. So God all up
and down the Bible honors sleep.
Adam, with his head on a pillow of
Edenic roses, has his slumber blest by
a divine gift of beautiful companion
ship; Jacob; with his head on pill
low of rock, has his sleep glorified
with a ladder filled with descending
and ascending angels Christ, with
a pillow made out of the folded up
coat of fisherman, honors slumber
in the back part of the storm tossed
| boat.
The only case of accident to sleep
mentioned in the Bible was when
Eutychus fell from a window during
a sermon of Paul, who had preached
until midnight, but that was not so
much a condemnation of sleep as a
censure of long sermons. More sleep
is what the world wants. Econo-
mize in everything but sleep. Will
liam H. Seward, the renowned secre-
tary of state, in the midst of his
overmastering tolls longed for the
capacity to rest, writing in his mem;
orandum book, II have never found
but one invaluable recipe for having
good nights rest, and that is to
have been restless and sleepless the
night before"
When President John Quincy
Adams and the distinguished Josiah
Quincy went to hear Judge Story
lecture on law to his students, and,
when invited to sit beside the judge
and both fell asleep, the judge APP
propriately pointed to them and said
to his students, Behold the evil eff
fects of early rising" In Bible times,
when people arose at the voice of the
bird, they retired at the time the biri
puts his head under his wing.
One of our national sins is robbery
of sleep. Walter Scott was SO urgent
about this duty of slumber, that
when arriving at a hotel where
there was no room to sleep in, except
! UlCtU Ill NhlSll w DO ~ wi DoC, LII
quired if the deceased had died of a
contagious disease, and when as
sured he had not, took the other bed
in the room and fell into profound
est slumber Those of small endur-
ance must certainly require rest, if
even the giant needs an iron bed
stead.
DO NOT BE SURPRISED WHEN THE GREAT
| OPPOSE YOU.
| Notice, furthermore, that Gods
people on the way to Canaan need
not be surprised if they confront
some sort of a giant. Had not the
Israelitish host had trouble enough
already2 No! Red sea not enough.
Water famine not enough. Long
marches not enough. Opposition
by enemies of ordinary stature not
enough. They must meet Og, the
giant of the iron bedstead. Nine