St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1895-09-06
For tI,r CHILDREN,
THE LITTLE FOX "BY-AND-BYu

| 20 ~ "''''o", WIN WAS the WlScSt
OF the Kings of Israel. 1t tells about the
heart, and how the love that is in it
may be kept pure and holy, or made i'm
pure and bad.
One verse in that song-Solomon s
Song, 2: 15-says: Take us the foxes.
the little foxes, that spoil the vines for
our vines have tender grapes"
The old Jewish vne-dressers used to be
greatly troubled by the foxes, which had
a way OF stealing in among the tender
vines, and gnawing the roots and eating
of the fresh green shoots, and doing a
great deal of damage. They had to
watch very carefully for them; and they
had song which they used to sing as
they were going out to work in their
vineyards. 4 part of it was:
destroy the pests of the vineyard!
Catcn the foxes. every one!
| BY all means take the little foxes,
For they are the ones that spoil the vines!"
Now our hearts are spoken of as the
vineyard. God has planted them and
watered them, and he wants them to
bear fruit for him. Do you know what
fruits they may bear? There is love,
purity and patience, and gentleness, and
kindness, and mercy, and faith. There
are good deeds and kind words and pure
thoughts. All OF these our Heavenly
Father has made it possible for our
hearts to bear, and he expects them to
do it.
But there are great many things that
spoil the vines in Gods vineyard. They
are like the little foxes, and they get into
our hearts and nibble off the grape clus.
tiers and break the tender twigs, and
trampIe out the delicate roots. They
are unkind thoughts, bad habits, cross
dispositions, love of self, and great
many Others. Let me tell you the names
of some of these little foxes. There is
"By-and-By," lazy fox, and II Can't"
a shiftIess fox, and 81 Won't" an obsti-
nate fox, and "I'll-do-as-l-please," a sell
fish fox, and "Cover-up" a sly fox, and
whole pack more.
Sometimes good things begin to grow
in children's hearts, like buds on a vine.
There is the bud of obedience, and the
bud of patience and the bud of modesty,
and the bud of helpfulness. Then some
thing comes and nips off the bud and it
stops growing. 1t is sly fox that has
been on the watch forit, and you cannot
think how much mischief he does.
should like to speak about several OF
these little foxes; but there is time for
only one today.
He is mischievous little fellow; but
so lazy that you can easily catch him if
you wish to.
Among my garden vines spy
A little fox, named 'By-and-By."
Have you never seen him? By-and By
has great many brothers and sisters,
and they are all very much alike.
There is put of" and "Pretty soon,"
and "Wait-a-bit," and Tomorrow;
and what say about one of them |
could say about them all.
By-and-By is sly little fox. He looks
innocent and is a great pet with the
children. Whenever there is anything
which you ought to do he whispers in
your ear: ooh, you needn't do it now
Some other time it will be very much
easier. There is no hurry"
Do you know that one of the great
great-grandfathers of this little fox lived
twenty-hve-hundred years ago, in the
days of the good prophet Isaiah? He
used to get into peoples hearts then
just as his descendants do now, and
made them say: Tomorrow shall be as
this day and much more abundant"
You may call that the text of this little
sermon, put right here in the middle.
By-and-By prowls about everywhere.
He persuades you to lie in bed late in the
morning When you are dressing he
makes you dawdle and look out of the
window, and be long while buttoning
up your shoes. When you are in school
he makes you slow in learning your les
sons. He calls off your mind to play, or
to other things that you want to do.
When you are sent on errands,
he makes you loiter on the street, or
stop to play or to look in at the shop
windows. when your parents have told
you to do something for them he sug
gests that you wait until afternoon, or
put it off till tomorrow; and so does
great deal ofmischief.
He nps off the buds of promptncss
and energy and makes you idle and
good-for-no thing. He starts you on a
downhill road that leads you to the pit
of disobedence. Do you see how
First, by By-and-By makes you put off
duty, then neglect it, then forget it, and
so you dsobey plain command. You
try to excuse it by saying, 81 didn't
mean to-" or 81 forgot" but the real
reason was you listened to By-and-By,
who whispered in your ear, "Wait a
while. Don't do it now"
This little fox is great thief. He
steals time-mnutes and hours and days |