The Globe-republican., 1892-05-09

ity Is that you will either
have to give up your loose indulgences
or else give up your occupation. Sin
will take all enthusiasm out of your
work and make you sick of life's drude-
cry, and though now and then between
your seasons of dissipation you may
rouse up to q sudden activity and start
again in the chase of some high and
noble end, even though you catch the
game you will sink back into slothful-
ness before you have roasted that which
you took in hunting. Bad habits unftla
man for everything but politics.
Now, what are the results OF in
dolence? A marked consequence of this
vice is physical disease. The healthiness
of the whole natural world depends upon
activity. The winds, tossed and driven
in endless circuits, scattering the mists
from the mountains, and scooping out
death damps from the caves, and blast
ing the miasma of swamps, and hurting
back the fetid atmosphere of great cities,
are healthy Just because of their swift
ness and Observation-Disclosures Of sweep.
But, after awhile, the wind falls and the
hot sun pours through it. and when the
leaves are still and the grain fields bend
smites its victims and digs trenches for
the dead.
The fountain, born far up in the wild
wood of the mountain, comes down
brighter for every obstacle against which
tits driven, and singing new song on
every shelf of rock over which it bounds,
till it rolls over the water-wheels in the
valley, not ashamed to grind corn, and
runs through the long grass of the
meadow, where the willows reach down
to dip their branches. and the unyoked
oxen come at eventide to cool. Healthy
water! Bright water! Happy water.
While some stream, too lazy any more to
run, gathers itself into a wayside pool,
where the swine wallow, and filthy in
sects hop over the surface, and reptiles
crawl among the ooze, and frogs utter
their hideous croak. and by day and
night there rises from the foul mire and
green scum fever and ague and death.
There is an endless activity underfOot
and overhead.
Not one four o'clock in the fower-bed,
not one fly on the window-pane, not one
squirrel gathering food from the cones
of the white pine, not one rabbit feeding
on clover tops, not one drop falling in
shower, not one minnow glancing in the
sea, not one quail whistling from the
grass, not one hawk cawing in the sky
but is busy now and is busy always, full
filling its mission as certainly as any
monarch on earth or any angel in
Heaven. You hear the shout Of the
plowboys busy in the field and the rattle
of the whiffietrees on the harrow, but
you do not know that there is more in
dustry in the earth upturned and in the
dumb vegetation underfoot than in all
that you see.
Furthermore, notice that Incidence en-
dangers the soul. Satan makes his chief
cOnQuestS over men who either have
nothing to do, or. if they have. refuse to
do it. There is legend that st. Thomas,
years after Christ's resurrection, began
again to doubt, and he went to the Apos-
ties and told them about his doubts.
Each Apostle looked at him with sur
prise and then said he must be excused,
for he had no time to listen any longer.
Then ST. Thomas went TO the devout
women of his 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 Apostles and
the devout women had no doubts.
Idleness not only leads man into as
sociations which harm his morals, but
often thrusts upon him the worst kind
of skepticism. Loafers are almost
always infidels, or fast getting to
be. Consummate 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
mechanics and professional men always
busy that you hear the religion of Jesus
maligned, as in public lounging places,
given up to profanity and dissoluteness.
They have no 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 q man given up to thor
Ough idleneSs that was converted. Simon
and Andrew were converted while fish
ing, and Lydia while selling purple, and
the shepherds of Bethlehem watching
their flocks heard the voice of angels,
and Gideon was thraShing on the thrash
ing floor, but no one was ever converted
with his hands in his pockets Let me
tell the idler that there is no hope 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, vet want so much,
ought to be busy. The redeemed in
Heaven are never idle. What exciting
songs they sing!
On what message of love they fly
through all the universe. fulfilling Gods
high behests and taking worlds in one
circuit: rushing with infinite terceneSs
against sin and cruelty and oppression,
and making the gates of hell to quake at
the overthrow of the municipalities of
darkness, and in the same twinkle of an
eve speeding back to their thrones with
the news OF sinners repentant The
River of Life is ever flowing, and the
palms ever waving, and the hallelujahs
ever rising, and the harps ever sounding,
and the temple always open, and the
golden streets always a-rush with chari-
OTIS of salvation, and the last place which
you ought ever to want TO 90 to is