Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1892-04-30
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DIR. TALMaGE SCORES THE OILERS,
TRlFLERs AND FLOATERS.


Idlencss rs II SIN. ind Modern Ministers
Soon Discover That the Idier Is Not
Susceptible to Religious Truth.
BROOKLYN, April pa visitor to the
Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning
would have 10 difficulty in understand
ing the secret of the attraction which
fills the vast building Sunday after Sun
day with throngs of eager listeners.
Avoiding abstruso theological subjects,
DIR. Talmage preached sermon on a
practical topic giving shrewd common
sense lessons of inestimable value to his
hearers, especially to the young people
who make up large part of his congre-
CATION. His text was Proverbs xii, 81,
1.-The slo:hful man roasteth not that
which he took in hunting"
David aud Jeremiah and Ezekiel and
Micah and Solomon of the text showed
that at some time they had been out on
hunting expedition. Spears, lanccs,
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 Il 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 OF pierced with acrows.
The hunters in olden time had two mis-
sions-one to clear the land of feroclous
beasts, and the other to obtain meat for
themselves and their families. The oc-
cupation and habit of hunters are IA
yorite Biblo smile. David said he was
hunted by his enemy like a partridge
upon the mountain. My text is hunt
ing scene.
A sportsman arrayed IL . garb cppro-
pirate to the wild chase lets slip the
blooathirsty hounds from their kennels,
and mounting his feet horse, with hal
loo and the yell of the greyhound pack
they are off and away, through brake
ard dell. over marsh and moor, across
chasms where q misstep would hurl
horse and rider to death, plunging INFO
1nire UP TO their launches or into swift
streams rp to The bit, till the game is
tracked by dripping foam and blood and
tho antlers crack On the rocks and the
hunter has just time to be il at the
death.
Yet after all the haste and peril Of tie
chase, my text represents this sportsman
as being roc indolent to dress the game
and prepare it for food He lets it lie i'll
the dooryard of his home and become q
portion for vcrmin and beaks of prey.
Thus by one master stroke Solomon
gives picture OF lazinesS, when he
saws, The slothful man roasteth not
that which lie took in hunting" The
most of hunters have the game they
shotor entrapped cooked the same even
ing OF the next Gay, but not so with this
laggard CT the text. Too lazy to rip
off the hide. Too lazy to kindle the fire
and put the. gridiron on the Goals.
a BEAUTIFUL PICTURE
The first picture I ever bought was en
engraving of Tkorwaldsens Autumn. {"
The clusters of grapes are ripe on tine
vine of the homestead, and the returned
hounds, painting from the chase, are ly-
ing on the doorsill, and the hunter is
unshouldcring the game, while the
housewife is about to take Q portion Of
it and prepare it for the evening meal.
Unlike the person CT the text, she was
enough industrious 10 roast that which
lad been taken il hunting. But the
world has had many specimen since
Solomon's time of those whose lassituGe
and improvilencc and absyrdity were
depicted in my text. The most of those
who have made dead failure of life
can look back and see a time when a
great opportunity opened, Eylt they did
not know it.
They were not as wise as George
Stephenson, 1.-The father Of railways"
who, when at sixteen years of age lie re-
ceived an appointment TO work ii pump
ing engine for twelve shillings q week,
cried out, "Now, am made man for
life" God gives to most men at least
one good opportunity. ~ great Grecian
general was met by group of begga1s,
and he said to them: eff you want
beasts to plow Your land, l Will lend you
some. If you want land, l Will give
YOU some. If you want seed to SOW
your land, will see that you get it,
but l will encourage none in idleness. )"
So God gives to most people an oppor-
tr,nity Of extrication from depressed cir
cumstances.
AS if to create in Us hatred for in
dol9nce, God has made those animals
which are sluggish to appear loathsomo
in our eyes, while those which are feet
and active he has clothed with attract
iveness. TIE tortoise, the sloth, the
snail, the crocodile repel Us, while the
deer and the gaelic are as pleasing as
they arc fleet. and from tho swift wings
of irnume-ablc birds God has spared no
purple or gold or jet or crimson or snowy
whiteness. Besides all this the Bible is
constantly assaulting the vice of lazi-
ness. Solomon seems to order the idler
out of his sight as being beyond all hu-
man instruction when he says, $50 to
the ant, thou sluysard; consider her
WAYS and be wise" And Paul seems to
drive him Nd from his dining table, be-
fore re 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
and what are it's evil results? I knew a
man who was never up to time. 1t
seemed impossible for him to meet an
engagement. When he was to be mar
ried he missed the train. His watch
seemed to take ON the habits of its owner
and was always too slow. lie had a
constitutional lethargy, for which he did
not seem responsible. So Incidence often
arises from the natural temperament.
do not know hut that there is q constl-
tutional tendency to this vice in every
man. However active you may gener-
ally be, have you not on some warm