The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-09-06

about the construction of a spiders eye
as he is in the conformation Of flaming
galaxies.
Fable from Plato.
Plato had fable which 1 have now
nearly forgotten, but it ran something
like this He said spirits of the other
world came back to this world to find a
body and find a sphere Of work. One
spirit came and took the body Of king
and did his work. After awhile Ulysses
came, and he said: why, all the fine
bodies are taken, and all the grand work
is taken. There is nothing left for me-"
And some one replied, "Ahi the best one
has been left for you" Ulysses said.
whats that?" And the reply was,
THE body of a common man, doing
common work and for a common re-
ward" A good fable for the world and
just as good fable for the church.
But, I remark again, we ought to
bring the religion of Jesus Christ into
our 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 be thanks
giving day. We take most of the bless
ings of life as matter of course. We
have had ten thousand blessings this
morning for which we have not thanked
/
have a thousand more blessings you will
never think of mentioning before God.
We must see a blind man led along
by his dog before we learn what grand
thing it is to have ones eyesight- We
must see a man with St. Vituss dance
before we learn what a grand thing it
is to have our physical energies. We
must see some soldier crippled, limping
along on his crutch, or his empty coat
| sleeve pinned up, before we learn what
a grand thing it is to have the use of
all our physical faculties. In other
words, we are so stupid that nothing
but the misfortunes Of others can wake
us up to an appreciation Of our common
blessings.
We get on board train and start for
Boston and come to Norwalk bridge, and
| the draw is off, and crashl goes the
| train. Fifty lives dashed out. We es-
| cape. We come home in, great excite
ment and call our friends around us,
and they congratulate us, and we all
| kneel down and thank God for our es-
cape while so many persisted. But to-
morrow morning you get on train Of
| cars for Boston. You cross that bridge
| at Norwalk. 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 to be more
| grateful when fifty 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 escape 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 appre-
ciate them and how soon we forget
| them! Like the OK grazing, with the
| clover up to its eye, like the bird pick
| ing the worm out of the furrow-never
| thinking to thank God who makes the
| grass grow and who gives life to every
1 living thing, from the animalculae in
| the sod to the Seraph on the throne.
| Thanksgiving, 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
| compared our indifference to the
| brute, but perhaps / wrong the brute
I do not know but that among it's
| other instincts it may have an instinct
1 by which it recognizes the divine hand
| that feeds it. I do not know but that
| God is through 1t holding communica-
| ton with what we call Irrational crea-
| ton" The cow that stands under
| the willow by the water course chewing
| her cud looks very thankful, and who
/ can tell how much a bird means by
/ it's song? The aroma of the flowers
| smells like incense and the mist arising
| from the river looks like the smoke of
| morning sacrifice. Oh, that we were
as responsive!
If you were thirsty and asked me for
| a drink and I gave you this glass of
| water your common instinct would re-
ply: 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
Just to men than we are just to God.
Who thinks of thanking God for the
! water gushing up in the well, foaming
in the cascade. 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 hot summer day?
| Who thinks to thank God for this Won
| derful physical organism, this sweep of
| vision this chime of harmony struck
into the ear. this crimson tide rolling
| through arteries and veins, this drum
ming of the heart on the march Of i'm
| mortality?
1 convict myself and I convict every
one Of you while I say these things
that we are unappreciative of the COM
| mon 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 famine
and desolation and sickness and woe
would stalk across the earth, and the
whole earth would become a place OF
skulls.
Oh. my friends, let US wake up to an
appreciation Of the common mercies OF
lifei Let every day be a Sabbath, every
meal a sacrament, every room a holy
of HOLES. We all have burdens to bear
Let us cheerfully bear them. We al
have battles to fight. Let us coura-
geously fight them.
If we want to do right we must live
right. You go home and attend to your
little sphere of duties. I will go home
and attend to my little sphere of duties
You cannot do my work; I cannot dc
your work. Negligence and Incidence
will win the hiss of everlasting scorn
while faithfulness will gather its gar
lands and wave it's scepter and sit upor
it's throne long after earth has put or
ashes and eternal ages have begun theil
march.
$4,000 FORFEIT.