Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-04-28
GOOD GAME WASTED.
rEPLORABLE RESULTS OF INCIDENCE
PORTRAYED BY DR.. TALMAGE.

SIuggard--Some Are Born Lazy, Some
Achieve Laziness and Some Have Lazi-
ness Forced on Them.
BROOKLYN, April ga visitor to the
Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning would
have no difficulty in understanding the Sc
Cret of the attraction which fills the vast
building Sunday after Sunday with throngs
of eager listeners. Avoiding abstruse the
illogical subjects, DR.. Talmage preached a
sermon on "A practical topic giving shrewd
rommon sense lessons of inestmable value
10 his hearers, especially to the young peo-
pie, who make up large part of his con-
uregation. His text was Proverbs xii, 81,
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 center of it there was some raised
ground with a 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
raptured. Birds were caught in gins or
pierced with arrows. The hunters in olden
time had two miesions-one to clear the
land Of ferocous beasts, and the other to
obtain meat for themselves and their fam
HES. The occupation and habit Of hunters
nre favorite Bible smile. David said he
was hunted by his enemy like a partridge
upon he mountain. My text is a hunting
scene.
THE 1MPROvTDENT HUNTER.
A sportsman arrayed in garb appropri-
nte to the wild chase lets Slip the blood
thirsty hounds from their kennels. and
mounting his fleet horse, with halloo and
he yell Of 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, plungiug into mire up to the
Launches or into swift streams up 10 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 o
be in ut the death. Yet, after all the haste
and peril of the chase, my text represents
This sportsman a. being too indolent to
dress the game and prepare it for food. He
lets it lie in the dooryard of his home and
become portion for vermin and beaks of
prey. Thus by one master stroke Solomon
gives picture of lazincss, when he says,
The slothful man roasteth not that which
Inc took in hunting The most of hunters
cooked the same evening or the next dav.
but not so with this laggard 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 lying on the
doOrsill 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 lassi-
tude and irnprovidence and absurdity were
depicted in my text. The most of those
who have made dead failure of life can
look back and see a time when great on
portunity 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 ap-
pointment to work at pumping engine
for twelve shillings week, cried ont.
Nov, | am made man for life" God
gives to most men at least one good oppor-
tunity. \ great Grecian general was met
tS Il EIJu = bl ItE4tIS ana ne SitIU 10 mem:
'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 ! will encourage none in idleness"
So God gives to most people an oppOr-
tunlty of eXtriCatiOn from depressed cir
cumstances. AS if to create in us a hatred
for incidence, 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 attractiveness
The tortoise, the sloth, the snail, the
crocodile repel us, while the deer and the
RaZelle 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 crimson or snowy wilderness. Besides
all this, the Bible is constantly assaulting
the vice Of laZiness. Solomon seems to or
der the iOler out of his sight as being be-
yond all human instruction when he says,
go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider
her ways and be wise" And Paul seems
to drive him up from his dining table be-
fore he gets through with the first course
OF food with the assertion, "If any will not
work, neither shall he eat"
CAUSES OF LAZINFsS.
Now, what are the causes of laziness and
what are its evil results? ! knew man
who was never up to time 1t seemed i'm
los,ble 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. lie had q constitutional lethargy
Tor which he did not seem responsible So
incidence often arises from the natural
temperament. do not know but there is
constitutional tendency to this vice in
every man. However active you may gen