Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-09-15

| friends if the heavens bend down to such in
| significant ministry as that, tell you God IS
| willing 70 bend down to your care, since He
| is lust as careful about the construction OF a
| spiders eye as He Is in the conformation OF
| flaming galax!es.
| Plato had fable which have now nearly
| forgotten. but it ran sonethin g-44ke this He
! said spirits of the other world came back to
! this world to find a body and find a sphere o.
| work. One spirit came and tOokthe DO " of
a king and did his WORK. Another spirit came
! and took the body of poet and did his WORK
| After awhile Ulysses came, and he said
! Why ali the fine bodies are taken. and ali
| the grand work is taken. There is nothing
| left for me-" And some one replied. All
! the best one has been left for YOU" Ulysses
| said. whats that And the reply was.
! THE body Of common man. doing a con-
! mon work and for a common reward" 4
| good fable for the world and just as cool
| fable for the church.
| But. | remark again. we ought to bring the
religion of Jesus Christ into oar ordinary
! blessings. Every autumn the President OF
| the United States and the governors make
proclamation. and We are called together in
our churches to give thanks to God for His
| goodness. But every day ought to bethanks-
! giving day. We take most OF the blessings
| OF life as a matter Of course We have had
| ten thousand blessings this morning for
| which we have not thanked God. Before the
night comes we will have n thousand more
| before God.
We must see a blind man led along by his
dog before we learn what grand thing it is
to have ones eyesght. We must see a man
with st. Vitus's dance before we learn wat
| grand thing 1t Is to have the use Of our pnySi-
cal energies. We must see some soldier
crippled, Hmping along on his crutch or his
! empty coatsleeve pinned up. before we learn
what a grand thing it is to have the of
all our physical faculties. In other words.
ctr mi tta+ J11+f hav oj.,FN
tunes of others can wake Us up to an appre~
citation of our common blessings.
We get on board a train and start for Bos-
ton and come to Norwalk bridge and the
''draw" is of and crash goes the train.
Fifty lives dashed out. We escape. We
come home in great excit enent and call our
| friends around Us, and they congratulate US
and we all knell down and thank God for oar
escape While so many per-shed. But to-
morrow morning YOU get on a train of cars
| for Boston. You cross that bridge at Nor
walk you cross all the other bridges you
| get TO Boston in safety. Then you return
home. Not an accident. not an alarm. No
thanks.
In other words, you seem tc be more CRATE
full when 30 people lose their lives and you
get off than you are grateful to God when
you all get off and you have no alarm at all.
Now. you ought to be thankful! when you es-
cape from accident, but more thankful when
they all escape. In the one case YOUR graft
tude is somewhat selfish in the other it is
more like what it ought to be.
Oh, these common mercieS these common
blessings, how little we appreciate them and
how soon we forget Them Like the OK
grazing, with the clover up to its ewes like
the bird picking the worm out of the furrov
never thinking to thank God, who makes
the grass grow and wnO gives life to every
living thing from the animalculae in the 50
to the seraph on the throne. Thanksgivin,
on the 9th Of November in the autumn OF
the year, but blessings hour by hour and day
by day and no thanks at all.
lcompared our Indifference to the brute
but perhaps I WrOnged the brute. do not
know but that among its other instincts il
may have an instinct by which it recognizes
the divine hand that feeds it. do not know
but that GOD is through it holding cOmmu-
: nlcatlon with what we call ''irrational crea-
ton. The COW that stands under the will
low by the water course chewing its cuI
looks very thankful, and VINO can tell how
much bird means by its song? The aroma
Of the flowers smell like incense, and the
mist arising from the river looks like tho
smoke OF q morning sacrifice. On, that we
were as responsive
If you were thirsty and asked me for a
drink and [ gave you this glass of water. your
common instinct would reply, ''Thank you"
And yet, how many chaliceS of mercy we get
hour by hour from the hand of the Lord, our
Father and our King. and we do not even
think to say, ''Thank you" More iust TO
men than we are just to God.
Who thinks Of thanking God for the water
gushing up in the well, roaming in the cas-
cade, laughing over the rocks. pattering in
the shower. clapping its hands in the sea?
Who thinks to thank God for that? Who
thinks to thank God for the air, the fountain
of life, the bridge of sunbeams. the path Of
sound, the great fan on a hot summer day?
Who thinks TO thank God for this wonderful
physical organism, this sweep Of vision, this
chime Of harmony struck into the ear,
this crimson tide rolling through arteries and
veins, this drumming Of the heart on tbs
march Of Immortality?
convict myself and [ convict everyone
OF you While [ say these things. that We
are unappreciative of the common mercieS
of life And yet if they were withdrawn, the
heavens would withhold their rain and the
earth would crack open under our feet and
desOiatlOn and sickness AMI woe would stalk
across the earth, and the whole earth would
become place Of SKULLS
oh, my friends. let Us wake up to an ap-
probation OF the common mercies of life Let
every day be Sabbath, every meal a sacra-
ment, every room holy of holes. We all
have burdens to bear; let Us cheerfully bear
them. We all have battles to fight let US
courageousy fight them.
If we want to die right. We must live right
You go home and attend 10 your little sphere
Of duties. [ Will go home and atten to my
little sphere Of duties. You cannot do my
work [ cannot do your work. Negligence
and Incidence will win the Mss Of everlast-
ing scOrn, while faithfulness will gather its
SarlandS and wave its sceptr3 AMI sit upon
its throne long after the world has put on
ashes and eternal ages have begun their
march.