The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-05-11
LAZINESS.
Sometimes II just Comes to Us Kind
of Natural,
Sometimes It's the Result of Easy Circum-
stances-Sometimes a Sudden Great
Misfortune Breeds It-SermOn by
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage.


| DR.. Talmage preached sermon last
Sunday from the following text: Prov.
xii, 81. 1.-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 employed in this
service. A deep pitfall would be digged.
In the centre of it there was some rails
ed ground with pole on which 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 OBJ
tain meat for themselves and their fam
| lilies. The occupation and habit OF
| hunters are a favorite Bible smile.
David said he was hunted by his enemy
like partridge upon the mountain. My
text is a hunting scene.
A sportsman, alrayed in a garb APP
propriate to the wild chase, lets slipthe
bloodthirsty hounds from their kennels,
and mounting his feet horse, with a
halloo and the yell of the greyhound
pack, they are off and away, through
brake and dell, over marsh and moor,
across chasms where a misstep would
hurl horse and rider to death, plunging
into mire up to the launches or into
swift streams up to the bit, till the
game is tracked by dripping foam and
blood, and 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 the chase my text
represents this sportsman as being
700 indolent to dress the game and pre-
pare it for food. He lets it lie in the
dooryard of his home and become por-
ZION for vermin and beaks of prey.
Thus by one master-stroke Solomon
gives picture of laziness when he says:
"The slothful man roasteth not that
which he. took in hunting" The most
of hunters have the game they shot or
entrapped cooked the same evening or
the next day, but not so with this lag
gard of the text. Too lazy to rip off the
hide. Too lazy to kindle the fire and
put the gridiron on the Goals.
The first picture ever bought was an
engraving of Thorwaldsens Autumn"
The clusters of grapes are ripe on the
vine of the homestead, and the returned
hounds, painting from the chase, are ly-
ing on the door sill and the hunter is
nnshouldering 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
lenough Industrious to roast that which
had been taken in hunting. But the
world has had many specimen since
Solomon's time of those whose
lassitude and improvidence and alb
surdity were depicted in my text.
The most of those who have made a
dead failure of life can look back and
see time when great opportunity
opened, but they did not know it.
They were not as wise as George
Stephenson, "the father Of railways"
who, when sixteen years of age he re-
coived an appointment to work at a
pumping engine for twelve shillings a
J week, cried "Now, am made man
for life God gives to most men at
least one good opportunity. A great
Greeiau general was met by group of
beggars, and he said to them: "lf you
want beasts to pillow your land | will
lend you some"
If you want landI will give you some.
If you want seed to SOW your land,
will see that you get it. But will en-
courage none in idlcncss." So, God
gives to most people an opportunity of
extraction from depressed circum-
stances. AS if to create in us hatred
for Incidence, God has made those
animals which are sluggish to APP.
pear loathsome in our eyes, while those
which are feet and active he has
clothed with attractivcness. The
tortoise, the sloth, the snail, the croci.
die rcpel us, while the deer and the
gazelle are as pleasing as they are fleet,
and from the swift wings of innumer.
able birds God has spared no purple, OF
old, or jet, or crimson, or snowy white
ness. Besides all this the Bible is con,
stantly assaulting the vice of laziness.
Solomon seems to order the idler out OF
his sight as being beyond all human in
struction when he says: go to the ant
thou sluggard consider her ways and
4 be wise" And Paul seems to drive him
up from his dining table before he gets
with the assertion: 'If any will no,
work, neither shall he eat"
Now, what are the causes of lazinest
and what are its evil results? know 4
nan who was never up to time. II
seemed impossible for him to meet an
engagement. When he was to be mar
ried, he missed the train. His watch
seemed to take the habits of its owner
and was always too slow. He had 8
constitutional lethargy for which he
did not seem responsible. So indolencC
often arises from the natural tempera
ment. do not know but that
here is constitutional tendency tc
this vice in every man. However act
i've you may generally be, have yor
not on some warm spring day felt {
touch of this feeling on you, although
you may have shaken it off as you
would n reptile? But some are so pow
erfully tempted to this by their bodily
constitution that all the work of the;l
life has been accomplished With thi:
lethargy banging on their back or tread
ing on their heels. You sometimes be
| l.. Il 4 IL ALA