The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-05-27

'
YOU renounce your occupation and as
sociate with them. Much of the time
they lounge around the doors of en-
CINE houses. :or after the dining hour
stand upon the steps of fashionable
hotel or an elegant restaurant, wish
ing to give you the idea that is the
place where they dine. But they do
not dine there. They are sinking
down lower and lower day by day.
Neither by day nor by night have any
thing to do with idlers
Before you admit man into your
acquaintance ask him politely, wv hat
do you do for living" If he says,
Nothing; lam gentleman, look
out for him. He may have a very
soft hand and very faultless apparel
and have a high sounding family
name but his touch is death. Before
YOU know it. you will in his presence
be ashamed OF your work dress. Busl,
ness will become to you drudgery. and
after awhile YOU will lose your place,
and afterward your responsibility, and
last of all, your soul. Idleness is next
door to villainy. Thieves, gamblers,
burglars, shoplifters and assasslns are
made from the class who have moth
ING to do. When~the police go to hunt
up and arrest culprit, they seldom
90 to look in at the busy carriage fac
tory or behind the counter where dill
GENT clerk are employed, but they 80
among the groups of idle,s. The play
is going on at the theater. when sud
denly there is scutIte in the top gal
lery. What isit2 a policeman has
come in, and, leaning over, has tap
ped on the shoulder OF young man,
saving, s'I want you, SIR" He has
not worked during the day, but some
how has raked together a shilling or
two to get into the top gallery. He is
an idler. The man on his right hand
is an idler, and the man on his left
hand is an idler.
During the past few years there has
been great deal of dullness in ousl,
ness. Young men have complained
that they have little to do. II they
have nothing else to do, they can read
and improve their minds and hearts.
These times are not always to continue.
Business is waking up, and the super
ior knowledge that in this interregnum
OF work YOU may obtain will be worth
$50, 900 Of capital. The large fortunes
of the next 20 years are having their
foundations laid now by the young
men who are giving themselves to self
improvement. went into store IN
New York and saw five men, all Chris
tians, sitting round, saying that they
had nothing to do. 1t is an outrage
for Christian man to have nothing
to do. Let him 60 out and visit poor,
or distribute tracts, or 60 and read the
Bible to the sick, or take out his New
Testament and be making his eternal
fortune. Let him 60 into the back Of
fee and pray.
Shrink back from idleness in your
self and in others If you woul5 main
tain right position. Good old Ash
bel Green at more than 50 years of age
was found busy writing, and some
Young man said to him: why do
you keep busy? It is time for you to
rest" He answered, 81 keep busy to
keep out of mischief. No man is
strong enough to be idle.
Are you fond of pictures? If so,
will show you one OF the works OF an
old master. Here it is: 81 went by the
field of the slothful and by the vine
yard of the man void of understand
ING, and 10. it was all grown over with
thorns and nettles had covered the face
thereof, and the stone wall was broken
down. Then I saw and considered
well. looked upon it and received
instruction. Yet little sleep, little
slumber, little folding OF the hands
to sleep. So shall thy poverty come
as one that traveleth and thy want as
an armed man" don't know of an
other sentence in the Bible more eX-
plosive than that. 1t first Kisses softly
like the fuse of a cannon, and at last
bursts like a 81 FOUNDER. The old
proverb was right, The devil tempts
most men, but idlers tempts the devil. "
A young man came to a man OF 80
wears of age and said to him, "HoW
have you made out to live so long and
be so well?" The old man took the
youncster to an orchard, and, point
ING to some large trees full of apples,
said, Il planted these trees when l
was boy, and do you wonder that
now am permitted to gather the fruit
of them?" We gather in old age what
we plant in our youth. Sow to the
wind, and we reap the whirlwlnd.
Plant in early lie the right kind OF
Christian character, and you will eat
luscious fruit in old age and gather
these harvest apples in eternity.
urge you to avoid the perpetual
pleasure seeker. I believe in recrea-
ton and amusement. God would not
have made US with the capacity to
laugh if he had not intended US some
times to indulge it. God hath hung
in sky and set in wave and printed on
grass many roundelay, but he who
chooses pleasure seeking for his life
work does not understand for what
God made him. Our amusements are
intended to help us in some earnest
mission. The thundercloud hath an
edge exquisitely purpled, but with
voice that jars the earth it declares, 60
to water the green fields" The wild
flowers under the fence are gay, but
they say, "IVe stand here to make
room for the wheatield and to refresh
the husbandmen in their noonlng."
The stream sparkles and foams and
frolics and says: II 60 to baptize the
moss. I leave the spots on the trout.
l Islake the thirst of the bird. I turn
the wheel of the mill rock in my
crystals cradle muckshaw and water
lily" And so, while the world plays,
it works. Look out for the man who
always plays and never works:
You will do well to avoid those
whose regular business is to play bal,
skate or 60 a boating. All these sports
are grandin their places. 1 never de-
rived SO much advantage from any
ministerial association as from min,